Skip to main content

Full text of "History Of The Conflict Between Religion And Science Ed.10"

See other formats 




THE 

INTlaS-NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SE^ 

Tlie follow;. Tg is a List of the Volumes already published : — 

I. The FORMS of WATER in CLOUDS, RIVERS, ICE and 
GLACIEHS. ]U’ J. ;Tyni>ai L, F.K.8. Sixth h^lition. 

AVith lllubtratioiis. bs, 

II. PHYSICS and POLITICS ; or, Tliouj^hts on tiu* Application 

nf tin* Priiifiplos of • Natural Selection’ ami ‘ Inluritanco ’ to 
Political Society. Py Waitkr Paokhot. Thin! Kdition. As , 

III. FOODS. Py l!]»wAh‘D Smith, M.lh, LL.P., F.P.S. I’ourth 

K< lit ion. I’rniu.scly Illustrated, bs. 

IV. MIND nnd BODY:’ the Theories of their Pelation. Py 

Ai KXA.NDKu LL.i>. i'illh Edition. I J Must rations. 4#. 

V. The STUDY of SOCIOLOGY. Py Ilnini nr SrK.NCKK, Sixth 

Kditioii. Z).' 

VI. On the CONSERVATION^ of ENERGY. Py Paiioik 

Sii-wAKT. .M.A.. I.J. h., P.K S. Third Kdilion. With Fourteen 

Illustrations, .is. 

VH. ANIMAL LOCOMOTION; or, Walkin^r, Swinuninp, and 
P\ .1. P. Pi nil. Hi.w, .M.D., F.K S. SeeomI Edition. 
Vitli )."() I Host rat ions. .'i.s. 

Vin. RESPONSIUIIilTY in MENTAL DISEASE. Py JlnNidV 
Mai nsi k^, M.I). .S eond Jvlition, bs. 

IX. Tflio NEW CHEMISTRY. Py ITohssor J. P. PooKr, ot'^tlie 
ll.irvaid I niM isity. lliird K<iitioij. ^VltIl .'il lllii.stralionH. bs. 

X. The SCIENCE of LAW. Pn Prof ssor Shu. hon Amos. Sreond 
I'M i lion. , 

,M. ANIMAL MECHANISM: a Tifatisepn Terrestrial and Airial 
T/eoinnl ii.n. Py i’rofi-sor E. .J. Makf.y. Second ICdit ion. AVilh 
117 I Iju.'^traiions. bs. 

XII. The DOCTRINE of DESCENT and DABWipiSM* By 
i’l'.frs-^or i ►'« AW jiMinr (Straslurg University). Third Kdilion. 
With Twenty si.x lllnstr.itions. 5 s . 



The Internattonal Scientific Series — continuocl. 


\III. The HISTOBY of the OONPLIOT between BBLIGtlOW 
and SOIBNOB. By Professor J. W. Drapbr. Eighth 
•Edition. 5s. 

XI V. FUNQ-I: the^ Nature, Influences, Uses, &c. 'Jff M. C. Coo^, 

M.A., LL.D. Edited by the Rov. M. J. Bbbkkli5v,.H.A.^ F.L.S. 
Second Elition. Crown 8vo. With Illustrations, o.^. 

XV. The OHJiMIOAL EFFECTS of LIGHT and PHOTO* 

ORAPHY in thfir Applioation to Art, Sciencp, and Industry. 
By Dr. Hkumann Vooki. (Polytrohnic Academy of Jlcrlin). Third « 
Elition. The Translation thoroughly revised. With IDJ Illus- 
trations, including some beiutifiil spocimons of Pliotogr.ipliy. os. 

XVI. The LIFE and OBOWTH of LANGUAGE. By W. D, 

Wkit.vky, Profos.sor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in 
Yah; Collog's Now Haven. Second Elitio.i. 5s. 

XVII. MONEY and the MEOHANISM of EXCHANGE. By 

Professor W. Stanlky Jkvons, F.R.S., Prof.-^sor of Logic 

an«l I’oliticjil Kconumy in the Owens College, Mauoliester. 
Second I'Mition. 5s. 

XVII 1. The NATUBE of LIGHT, with n Gonoral Account of 
PHYSICAL OPTICS. By Dr. Euoknk I/immm. rr.»f.^s)r 
of Physics in the University of Erlangen. Se'oud Edition. 
With 18S Illustrations ami a Plate »>f Spectri in Uhromo- 
lithography. 5s. 

XIX. ANIMAL PARASITES and MESSMATES. By MonMour 
Vax Bk.vkokj^, Pr«)fcssor of the University of L>uvain, Corre- 
S|>on«leut of the Instittito of France, jud Etilon. With 
Ei'jrhty-three Illustmtions. ,"»>•. 

XX» FBBMBNTATION. Ity Professor Scin rzKSUK’t jru* Din' 'tor 
of the Chemical Ijaboratory at the Sorbonue. Wirli Twenty- 
eiglit lllu.si rations. 5s, 

I 

XXI. Tho FIVE SENSES of MAN. By Pn>fessMr B..uNNrKiN’, of 

tho University of HaMo. WithOl Ilhistr itions. Second E litio:). 5s. 

• 

xxn. Tho THEORY of SOUND in Iti RELATION to MUSIC 
• By Profe.'i'ior P^Ktno Bi.A8kun.\, ojthe Boyal University of Rome. 
Second Elitiou. With numerous IlliiNtrations. o<, 

HENRY S. KING A CO., London. 



THK 

Intkuxatioxaf. Scientific Series 


VOL XIII, 




HISTOEY OF THE CONFLICT 
BETWEEN 

EELIOION AND SCIENCE 


nv 

JOHN iviLLIAM DIJArKH, M.l)., LL.I). 


IN Till: I'NIVm^m' «»K NKAN* VoHK 
AMI Al IH'm or A niK^TI")- *>N III MAX l*IIVSji)I»(}V ’ 


TENTH EDITION 


HENRY S. KINO & GO., LONDON* 
1877 





sjriir t'ifjhU oj tran-^l'iU K tind of nprohu'iion are reserved) 



PEEFA(JE. 


WiioE^'ER has had an opportunity of becoininij: ac- 
quainted with the mental condition of the intelligent 
classes in Europe and America, must have perceived 
that there is a great and nipidly-increasing departure 
% from the public religious faith, and that, while among 
tlic more frank this divergence is not concealed, them 
is a far more extensive and far more dangerous seccs- 
s^n, j)rivate and unacknowledged, 

"• So wide-spread and so powerful is this secession, 
that it can neither be treated with contempt nor with 
punishment. It cannot be extinguished by <lerision, 
by vituperation, or by force. The time is rapidly 
approaching when it will give rise to serious political 
results. 

Ecclesiastical spirit no longer inspires the policy of 
the world, Military fervor in behalf of faith has dis- 
^appeared. Its only souvenirs ftro the marble efflgie.' 
of crusading knights, reposing in the silent crypts of 
churches on their tombs. 

That a crisis is impending is shown by thfi attitude 
of the greaj powers tow^^fd the papacy. The papacy 



VI 


PREFACE. 


represents the ideas and aspirations of two-thirds of the 
population of Europe. It insists on a political suprem- 
acy in accordance with its claims to a divine origin 
and mission, and'a restoration of the medisSval ordpr' 
of things, loudly declaring that it will accept no reco 
ciliation with modem pVilization. 

The antagonism we thus witness between Eeligion 
and Science is the continuation of a struggle that -cojU- 
menced when Christianity began to attain political prw- 
er. A divine revelation must necessarily be intolei 
of contradiction ; it must repudiate all improvemer . 
itself, and view with disdain that arising from the pro- 
gressive intellectual development of man. But our 
opinions on every subject are continually liable to mod- 
ification, from the irresistible advance of liuinan know^ ‘ 
edge. 

(Jan we exaggerate the importance of a contention 
which every thoughtful person must take part whet!, 
he will or not? In a matter so solemn as that of rei 
gion, all men, whose temporal interests are not involve 
in existing institutions, earnestly desire to find the 
truth. They seek information as to the subjects in 
dispute, and as to the conduct of the disputants. 

The history of Sciehce is not a mere record of iso- 
lated discoveries ; it is a* narrative of the conflict of two 
contending powers, ^he e^ipansive force of the human 
intellect on one side', and the compression arising from 
IraditionaVy faith and human interests on the other. 

No one has hitherto treitfcd the subject from tliis 



PREFACE. 


vii 


amt of view. Yet from this point it presents itself 
as a living issue — in fact, as the most imj>ortant 
E fit living issues. 

^ few years ago, it was the politfc and therefore 
proper course to abstain from all allusion to this 
Ox troversy, and to keep it as* far as possible in the 
background. The tranquillity of society depends so 
much on the stability of its religious convictions, that 
no oi;e can be justified in wantonly disturbing them. 
^ faith is in its nature unchangeable, stationary ; 
. ce is in its nature progressive; and eventually a 
jjivergence between them, inq)Ossible to con(*eal, must 
ake ])laee. It then becomes the duty of those wh(»si‘ 
\ts have made them familiar with both modes of 
, Might, to lU’esent modestly, hut firmly, their views ; 
giconipare the antagonistic j)retensions calmly, impar- 
]»hilosophically. llist^uy shows that, il this be 
tl done, social misfortunes, disastrous and enduring, 
p, ensue. AVheii the old myth<»logical religion of 
/ope broke down umler the weight of its own incon- 
sistencies, neitlier tin? Homan emperors nor tluj phi- 
losophers of those times did any thing ad(‘quate for tfjc 
guidance oi public opinion. Tliey h*ft r(*ligious affairs 
b> take their (*hance, and ac('or<rpigly tlu>sti affairs fell 
into the hands of i^ruorant and fnfuriated (*f*elesiastics, 
parasites, eunuchs, and slaves.. 

The intellectual night which settled on Europe^ in 
consequence of that great neglect of duty, is'])aKsing 
away ; we li^c in the dayl^'eak of better things. So* 



viii 


PREFACE. 


cicty is anxiously expecting light, to see in what dnspo* 
tion iUis drifting. It plainly discerns that the trqpk 
along which the voyage of civilization has thus far heeiv 
made, has been left; and that a new departure, on tan^ 
unknown sea, has been taken. 

Though deeply ijnpressed with such thoughts, I 
should not have presumed to write this book, or to 
intnide on the public the ideas it presents, had I not 
made the facts with which it deals a subject of long 
and earnest meditation. And I have gathered a strong 
incentive to undertake this duty from the circumstance 
that a History of the Intellectual Development of Eu- 
rope,” jiublished by me several years ago, which has 
passed through many editions in America, and has been 
reprinted in numerous European languages, English, 
French, German, Itussian, Polish, Servian, etc., is every- 
where received with favor. 

In collecting and arranging the materials for the 
volumes I published under the title of “A Ilistoryeof 
the American Civil War,” a work of veiy great labor, 
I^had become accustomed to the comparison of con- 
flicting statements, the adjustment of conflicting claims. 
The approval with which that book has been received 
by the American pubftc, a critical judge of the events 
considered, has inspirecl me with additional confidence. 
I hack also devoted ^nuch*attcntion to the experimental 
in^stigation of natui-al phenomena, and had published 
many well-known memoirs on such subjects. And per- 
haps no one can give himself to these pursmts, and spend 



PREFACE. 


ix 


a Urge part of his life in the public teaching of 6ciGn(^, 
without partaking of that love of impartiality an^ truth 
a^hich Philosophy incites. She inspires uswitli a desire 
Toidpdicate our days to die good of orfr race, so that in 
the fading light of life’s evening we may not, on look- 
ing back, be forced to acknowfecilge howninsubstantial 
and useless are the objects that we have pursued. 

Though I have spared no pains in the composition 
of this book, I am very sensible how unequal it is to 
the subject, to do justice to wliich a knowledge of sci- 
ence, history, theology, politics, is reciuired ; every page 
should be alive with intelligence and glistening with 
facts. Put then T have reinenibercd that this is only as 
it were the prefact*, or forerunner, of a body of litera- 
ture, which the events and wants of our times will call 
forth. We have come to the brink of a great intel- 
lectual change. Much of the frivolous reading of the 
present will be supplanted by a thouglitful and austere 
literature, vivified by endangered interests, and made 
fervid by ecclesiastical passion. 

AVhat I have sought to do is, to present a clear and 
impartial statement of the views and acts of the two 
contending parties. In one sense I have tried to iden- 
tify myself with each, so jis to (#oifipreheud thoroughly 
►their motives ; but in another and higher sense I have 
endeavored to stand aloof, ami relgte with impartiality 
their actions. 

I therefore tnist that those, who may be dfsposcfl U) 
criticise thi» book, will bewr in mind that its object is 



JC 


PREFACE. 


apt to advocate the views and pretensions of either 
party, d)ut to explain clearly, and without shrinking, 
those of both. In the management of each chapter* 
I have usually ^t forth the orthodox view first, .and 
then followed it with that of its opponents. 

In thus treating t^je irabject it has not been necessaiy 
to pay much regard to more moderate or intermediate 
opinions, for, though they may be intrinsically of great 
value, in conflicts of this kind it is not with the mod- 
erates but with the extremists that the impartial reader 
is mainly concerned. Their movements determine the 
issue. 

For this reason I have had little to say respecting 
the two great Cliristian confessions, the Protestant and 
Greek Churches. As to the latter, it has never, since 
the restoration of science, arrayed itself in opposition to 
the advancement of knowledge. On the contrary, it 
has always met it Avith welcome. It has observed a 
reverential attitude to tmth, from Avhatever quarter it 
might come. Recognizing the apparent diserepancies 
between its interpretations of revealed tinth and the 
discoveries of science, it has always expected that sat- 
isfactory explanations and reconciliations would ensue, 
and in this it has noi been disappointed. It would 
have been well for modern civilization if the Roman 
Chnrclj had done thq same. 

Jn speaking of Christianity, reference is generally 
made to tlie Roman Church, partly because its adherents 
compose the majority of Christendom, partly because 



PBEFACB. 


xi 


its demands are the most pretentious, and partly beoauso 
it has commonly sought to enforce those demands by 
the civil power. None of the Protestant Churches has 
' ^^r occupied a position so imperiouai— none has over 
had Wh widespread political influence. For the most 
* part they have been averse to constraint, ^nd except in 
very few instances their opposition has not passed be- 
yond the exciting of theological odium. 

As to Science, she has never sought to ally herself to 
civil power. She has never attempted to throw odium 
or inflict social ruin on any human being. She has 
never subjected any one to mental torment, physical 
torture, least of all to death, for the purpose of uphold- 
ing or promoting her ideas. She presents herself un- 
stained by cruelties and crimes. But in the Vatican — 
wo have only to readl tho Inquisition — the hands that 
are now raised in appeals to the Most 3Ierciful are 
crimsoned. They have been steeped in blood 1 

There are two modes of historical composition, the 
artistic and the scientific. The former implies that men 
give origin to events ; it therefore selects some promi- 
nent 'individual, pictures him under a fanciful forin, 
and makes him the hero of a romance. Tho latter, in- 
sisting that human affairs present an unbroken chain, in 
which each fact is the offspring if some preceding 'facl, 
and the parent of some subsequent fact, declares that 
men do not control events, but that events control men. 
The former gives origin to compositions, which,*however 
much they ipay interest oi; delight us, are but a grade 



xii 


PREFACE. 


above novels ; the latter is austere, perhaps even repul- 
sive, for it sternly impresses us with a conviction of the 
irresistible dominion of law, and the insignificance of 
human exertionfi. In a subject so solemn as that^ #3 
which this book is devoted, the romantic and the popu- 
lar are altogether out -of place. He who presumes to ’ 
treat of it must fix his eyes steadfastly on that chain of 
destiny which universal history displays ; he must turn 
with disdain from the phantom impostures of pontiffs 
and statesmen and kings. 

If any thing were needed to show us the untnist- 
wortliiness of artistic historical compositions, our per- 
sonal experience would furnish it. How often do our 
most intimate friends fail to perceive the real motives 
of oiu* every-day actions; how frequently they misin- 
terpret our intentions ! If this be the case in what is 
passing before our eyes, may we not be satisfied that it 
is impossible to comprehend justly the doings of persons 
who lived many years ago, and whom we have never seen. 

In selecting and arranging the topics now to be pre- 
sented, I have been guided in part by “the Confession” 
of the late Vatican Council, and in part by the order of 
events in history. Not without interest will the reader 
remark that the subjects offer themselves to us nou 
as they did to the old philosophers of Greece. We 
still deal with the &mic questions about whicli they dis- 
puted. What is Godi What is the soul? What is 
the world ? How is it governed ? Have we any stand- 
ard or criterion of truth? And the thoughtful reader 



PREFACE. 


xiii 


will earnestly ask, “ Are our solutions of these prob- 
lems any better than theirs?” 

Tlie general argument of this book, then, is as fol- 

1 iirst direct attention to tho origin of modern sci- 
ence as distinguishetl from aitcient, by depending on 
observation, experiment, and mathematical discussion, 
instead of mere speculation, and shall show that it was 
a consequence of the Macedonian campaigns, wl)icli 
brouglit Asia and Europe into contact. A lirief sketcli 
of tli(»se campaigns, and of the Museum of Alexandria, 
illustrates its character. 

Then with brevity I recall the well-known origin 
of (dii*i>tianity, and show its advance to the attainment 
of ii)ii)erial power, the transformation it tnulerwent by 
its incorporation with paganism, the existing religion 
of tile Ihnnaii h]mpire. A clear conception of its in- 
coinj»atil»ility with science caused it to supjiress forcibly 
the Schools of Alexandria. It was constrained to this 
by the political necessities of its ]>osition. 

The parties to the conflict tlius placed, I next relate 
the story of their flrst open stniggle ; it is the first* or 
Southern Eefonnation. The point in dispute had re- 
spect to tlie nature of God. involved tho rise of 
^irohainmedanisni. Its result was, tliat much of Asia 
ami Africa, with the liistork* cities Jerusalem, Alex- 
andria, and Carthage, were wrenchcd'from Christenc^orn, 
and the doctrine of the Unity of God establislfed in the 
largi r portiqp of what liad.bccu the Roman Empire. 



nv 


PREFACE. 


This political event wafe followed by the restoration 
of science, the establishment of colleges, schools, libm- 
ries, throughout the dominions of the Arabians. Those 
conquerors, presCing forward rapidly in their inte^f^ 
ual development, reiected the anthropomorphic ideas of 
the nature of God remaining in their popular belief, 
and accepted otlier more philosophical ones, akin to 
those that had long previously been attained to in 
India. The result of this was a second conflict, that 
respecting the nature of the soul. Under the designa- 
tion of Averroism, there came into prominence the the- 
ories of Emanation and AbsoiTition. At the close of the 
middle ages the Inquisition succeeded in excluding 
those doctrines from Europe, and now tlie Vatican 
(Jouncil has formally and solemnly anathematized them. 

Aleantime, through the cultivation of astronomy, 
geograjdiy, and other sciences, correct views had been 
gained as to the position and relations of the earth, and 
as to the structure of the world ; and since Keligion, 
resting itself on what was assumed to be the proper 
interpretation of the Scriptures, insisted that the earth 
is the central and most important part of the universe, 
a third conilict broke oyt. In this Galileo led the way 
on the part of Scienc'A Us issue was the overthrow of 
the (Miurch on the <pieWiou in dispute. Subsequently a 
subordinate controversy jyose resj^ecting the age of the 

I V 

world, the Church insisting that it is only about six 
thousand years old. In this she was again overthrown. 

The light of history aiuj of science had been gradu- 



PREFACE. 


rr 


ally spreading over Europe. In the sixteenth centu^ 
the prestige of Koman Christianity was greatly dimin* 
i^ed by the intellectual reverses it had experienced, 
also by its political and moral c^dition. It was 
clearly seen by many pious men that llcligioii was not 
* accountable for the false position in wj^ieh she was 
found, but that the misfortune was directly traceable to 
the alliance she had of old contracted with lioman pa- 
ganism. The obvious remedy, therefore, was a return 
to primitive purity. Thus arose tlie fourth contlict, 
known to us as the Reformation — the second or North- 
ern Reformation. The special form it assumed was a 
contest respecting the standard or criterion of truth, 
wliether it is to be found in the Church or in the 
Bible. The determination of this involved a settle- 
ment of the rights of reason, or intellectual freedom. 
Luther, who is the conspicuous man of the epoch, car- 
ried into effect his intention with no inconsiderable 
success; and at the close of the struggle it was found 
that Northern Europe was lost to Roman Christianity. 

We are now in the midst of a controversy resiKJcting 
tlie mC)de of government of the world, whether it bo by 
incessant divine intervention, or by tlie operation of pri- 
mordial and unchangeable law. The intellectual move- 
ment of Christendom has rcaclied tliat point which 

Arabisni had attained to in tl^p tenth and eleventh ceu- 

• • 

tunes ; and doctrines which were tlien^discussed arc pre- 
senting themselves again for review ; such are those of 
Evolution, Creation, Development. 

a 



xvi 


PKEFACE. 


^ Offered under these general titles, I think it will be 
found, that all the essential points of this great contro- 
versy are included. By grouping under these compre- 
hensive heads the facts to be considered, and desdijPg 
with each group separately, we shall doubtless acquire 
clear views of their inter-connection and their histori-’’ 

t 

cal succession. 

I have treated of these conflicts as nearly as I con- 
veniently could in their proper chronological order, and, 
for the sake of completeness, have added chapters on — 

An examination of what Latin Christianity has done 
for modern civilization. 

A corresponding examination of what Science has 
done. 

The attitude of Homan Christianity in the impend- 
ing conflict, as deflned by the Vatican Council. 

The attention of many truth-seeking persons has 
been so exclusively given to the details of sectarian dis- 
sensions, that the long strife, to the history of which 
these pages arc devoted, is jmpularly but little known, 
flaving tried to keep steadfastly in view the determina- 
tion to write this work in an impartial spirit, to speak 
with respect of the contending parties, but never to con- 
ceal the truth, I comi\iit it to the considerate judgment 
of the thought fid reader^. 

* . ‘ JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER. 

c 

University, New York, December, 1878. 



CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE OKIOIN OF SCIENCE. 

JitUt/iouA condition of tlic O reeks in the fourth centurj/ before Christ.-^ 
Tkieir invasion of the Pvrsian Kmpire brings them in contact vith 
ticie aspects of Xuture, and familiarises them with new relitjious sys- 
tems . — The military^ cnyinecriny^ and scieutijic activity^ stimidated 
by the Macedonian camjniiyM, leads to the establishment in Alex- 
andria ef an institute.^ the Museum^ for the cultivation of ktunrlcdys 
by (ifterimeut^ observation^ and mathematical discussion. — /t is the 
oriyin of Science . . . , . . . . r>inK 1 


CHAPTER II. 

THE OBIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. — ITS TRANSFORMATION ON ATTAIN- 
ING IMl’RKIAI. POWF.R. — ITS RELATIONS TO W'lK.NCE. • 

Rdiyious condition of the Ronuin Reputdic . — The adoption of imperial- 
ism leads to monotheism , — L'hristianHyjTsprcxids over the Roman 
Rmpirc . — The circumstances umhr irh^h it atUtined imperial jiower 
make its union with Payanism a jtolitiral nerrssify . — lertullian^s 
description of its dortrines and practices. — Debasiny effect of the 
P*>ll^y of Constantine on it. — Its dflianre Oie civil powg^. — Its 
incompatibility with seience. — Destruction <ff the Alezatulrian JJ- 
brary and prohibition of philosophy. — Exposition of the .i^tyusti^n 
philosophy and Patristic science yew rally , — TIve Radptures made the 
standard of ^cnce p. 84 



xviii 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER III. 

OONF&OT RESPECTING THE DOCTRINE OF THE UNITY OF GOD,-> 
THE FIRST OR SOUTHERN REFORMATION. ^ 

Tht EgypHauB iirnii on the introduction of the worship of t?ie .fS#« 
Mary , — They are rented hy Nestor^ (he Patriarch of Constantinopley 
but eventually y through tJ^eir influence with the emperor y cause Nes^^ 
tops exile aAd the dispp‘sion of his followers. 

Prelude to the Southern Ptforfnation, — The Persian attack ; its moral 
effects. 

The Arabian Reformation. — Mohammed is brought in contact mth the 
Nestorians, — He adojyts and extends their principleSy rejecting the 
worship of the Virgbiy the doctrine of the Trinityy and every thing 
in opposition to the unity of God. — He extinguishes idolatry in 
ArabiUy hy force, and prepares to make war on the Roman Empire, 
— His successors conquer SyriUy Egypt, Asia Minor, North Africa, 
Spain, and invade France. 

As the result of this conflict, the doctrine of the unity of God was estab- 
lished in the greater part of the Roman Empire. — The cultivation of 
science was restored, and Christendom lost many of her most illustrious 
capitals, as Alexandria, Carthage, and, above all, Jerusalem page 68 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE RESTORATION OF SCIENCE IN THE SOUTH. 

By the influence of the Nestorians and Jews, the Arabians are turned to 
the cultivation of Science . — Tfiey modify their views as to the destiny 
of man, and obtain tnie conceptions rcsjwcting the structure of the 
world. — They ascertain the size of the earth, and determine f<8 shape. 
— Their khalifs collect great libraries, patronize every department of 
science and literatu)^ establish astronotnical observatories, — TJ^ 
develop the mathematical sciences, invent algebra, and improve geom» 
tlry and trigonometry.A-Thei/ collect and translate the old Greek 
mathematical ami astronomical works, and adopt the inductive methc^ 
of Aristotle. ^Thcy establish many colleges, and, with the aid of ^e 
Mstortafis, organizd a public-school system. — They introduce the 
Arabic numerals and arithmetic, and catalogue and give nanus to 
the shrs. — They lay t?u foundation of modem astronomy, chemistry, 
and physics, and introduce great improvements in agriculture and 
manufactures , . • . . . . , , . p. 102 



CONTENTS. 


XIX 


CHAPTER V. 

OONIXIOT BESPSOTINa THE NATURE OF THE SOUL.<~DOOTB(^E OF 
EMANATION AND ABSOBPTION. 

^K^ropean ideas respecting the eoul,-^R resembles the form of the hodg, 

views of ike Orientals. — The Vedie theology and Buddhism 
assert the doctrine of emanation and absorption. — It is advocated by 
AristodCf who is followed by the Alexandrian schooly and subsequently 
by the Jews and Arabians. — It is found iiPthe writings of Erigena, 

Connection of this doctrine with (he theory of conservation and corre^ 
lotion of force.-~^ParaUel between the origin and destiny of the body 
and the soul . — The necessity of founding human on comparative 
psydiology. 

Averroismy which is based on these factsy is brought into Christendom 
through Spain and Sicily. 

Histdry of the repression of Averroism. — BevoU of Islam against if . — 
Antagonism of the Jewish synagogues. — Its destruction undcrtdkci\ 
by the papacy. — Institution of the Inquisition in Spain. — Frightful 
persecutions and their results. — Expulsion of the Jews and Moors.--^ 
Overthrow of Averroism in Europe. — Decisive action of the late 
Vatican Council page 119 


CHAPTER VI. 

CONFLICT RESPECTING THE NATURE OF THE WORLD. 

Scriptural view of the world : the earth a flat surface ; location of heaven 
and hell. 

Scientifle view : the earth a globe ; Us size determined ; its position in and 
relations to the solar system. — The three great voyages . — ColumbuSy 
De^ Camay Magellan. — Circumnavigation of the earth. — Determin^^ 
don of its curvature by the measurement of a degree and by the pen^ 
dvlum, y 

The discoveries of Copernicus. — Invention the telescope. — OaUUo 
brought before the Inquisition. — His punishment . — Victory over the 
^ Church. 

Attempts to ascei'tain the dimensions of the solar system. — Determination 
of the surCs par odlax by the transits of Venus.-^Insigniflcance of 
the earth and man. * ^ 

Ideas respecting the dimensions of the universe. — Parallax of the stars,— 
The plurality of worlds asserted by Bruno. — He is seised and mur- 
dered by the Inquisition 169 



CONTENTS. 


TX 


CHAPTER VIL 

CONTBOVERSY EESPEOTINa THE AGE OP THE EARTH. 

Scriptural view that the earth is ordy six thousand years old^ and that ii 
was made in a we^, — Patristic chronology founded on the ages 
patriarchs, — Difficulties arising from different estimates in difff^r^ 
versions of the Bible, 

Ijcgend of iho Deluge. — The repeopling, — Thjc Tower of Bahd ; the con- ' 
fusion of tongues. — THs primitive language. 

Discovery by Cassini of the ohlateness of the planet Jupiter, — Discovery by 
Newton of the ohlateness of the Earth. — Deduction that she has been 
modeled by mechanical causes. — Confirmation of this by geological 
discoveries respecting aqueous rocks; corroboration by organic re- 
mains. — The necessity of admitting enormously Jong periods of time, 
— Displacement of the doctrine of Creation by that of Evolution , — 
Discoveries respecting the Antiquity of Man. 

The time-scale and space-scale of the world are infinite. — Moderation 
with which the discussion of die Age of the World has been con- 
ducted PAGE 182 


CHAPTER VIII. 

CONFLICT RESPECTING THE CRITERION OF TRUTH. 

A ncient philosophy declares that man has no means of ascertaining the 
truth. 

Difiercnccs of belief arise among the early Christians. — An ineffectual at- 
tempt is made to remedy them by Councils, — Miracle and ordeal proof 
introduced. 

The papacy resorts to auricular confession and the Inquisition. — It per- 
petrates frightful atrocities for ilio suppression of differences of 
• opinion, » 

Eff ^ct of the discovery of the Pandects of Justinian and development of the 
canon law on the nat)^ of evidence. — It becomes more scientific. 

Ihe Jicformation establishc^fhe rights of individual reason. — Catholicism 
asserts that the criteriom of truth is in the Church, It restrains the 
reading of books by the Index Expur gator iuSy and combats dissert 
by such means as the massacr^ of St, Bartholomew's Eve, 

Examination of the authSiticify of (he Pentateuch as the Protestant crite- 
^ rion, — Spurious character of those books. 

Eor Scien^ the criterion of truth is to be found in the revelations of Na- 
ture : for the Protestant^ it is in the Scriptures ; for the Catholic^ in 
an infallible Pops . . . c . . p. 201 



CONTENTS. 


xxi 


CHAPTER IX. 

OONTBOVEK8Y BE8PEOTING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNI^ER8E» 

JWtf are two conceptions of the government of the world: 1. Bg ProvU 
^^Mc; 2. By Law, — 2'he former maintained by tke priesthood. — Sketch 
of the introduction of the latter, 

^Kepler discovers the laws that preside over the solar system, — His leorks are 
denounced by papal authority.-- The foun^vons of •mechanical phi- 
losophy are laid by Da Vinci, — Galileo discovers the fundamental laws 
of Dynamics. — Newton applies them to the movements of the celestial 
bodies^ and shows that the solar system is governed by mathematical 
necessity. — Herschel extends that conclusion to the universe, — The 
nebular hypothesis . — Theological exceptions to it. 

Evidences of the control of law in the construction of the earthy and in the 
development of the animal and plant series. — They arose by Evolu- 
tion^ not by Creation. 

The reign of law is exhibited by the historic career of human societies^ and 
in the case of individual man. 

Partial adoption of this view by some of the Reformed Churches p. 228 


CHAPTER X. 

LATIN CHRISTIANITY IN RELATION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION. 

For more than a thousand fjears Latin Christianity controlled the intelli- 
gence of Europe^ and is responsible for the result. 

That result is manifested by the comlition of the city of Rome at the Ref- 
om^tiony and by the condition of the Continent of Europe in domes- 
tic and social life. — European nations suffered under the coexistence 
of a dual govermnenty a spiritual and a tanporal . — They were im- 
mersed in ignoranccy superstitioHy discotpfort. — Explanation of the 
failure of Catholicism. — Political hlstyy of the papacy: it' was 
transmuted from a spiritual confederacy into an absolute monarchy. 
— Action of the College of Cardinals ami the Curia. — Demoraliza- 
tion that ensued from the necessity df raisir^f large revenues. 

The advantages accruing to Europe during the Catholic rule arose not from 
direct inientiony but were iundcntal. 

The general result w, that the political influence of Catholicism was prrjn. 
dicial to modern civilization . . . p. 2.*) 5 



CONTENTS. 


xxu 


CHAPTER XI. 

SOIKNOE IN RELATION TO MODERN CIVILIZATION. 

Jlliutration of the general infiuences of Science from the history of Americd, 

The Introduction oic Science into Europe.— // jooMci from Moorish gfjiin 
to Upper Italy j and was favored by the absence of the popes at Avignon, 
~^The effects of pnnting^ of maritime adventure^ and' of the Ttefor* 
matim. — Bstabliskme^ of the Italian scientific societies. 

The Intellectual Influence of Science. — It changed the mode and the 
direction of thougld in Europe.- ^The transactions of the Royal So^ 
dety of London^ and other soienlific societies^ famish an illustration 
of this. 

The Economical Influence of Science is illustrated by the numerous me- 
chanical and physical inventions^ made since the fourteenth century.^ 
Their influence on health and domestic life^on the arts of peace and 
of war. 

Answer to the question^ What has Science done for humanity? page 286 


CHAPTER Xll. 

THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 

Indications of the approach of a religious crisis. — The predominating 
Christian Churchy the Romany perceives thiSy and makes preparation 
for it. — Fius IX. convokes an (Ecumenical Council. — Relations of the 
different European governments to the papacy. — Relations of the 
Church to Scicnccy as indicated by the Encyclical Letter and the Syl- 
labus. 

Acts of the Vatican Council in relation to the infallUnlityofthepopey and 
* to Science. — Abstract of decisions arrived at. 

Controversy between the Prussian Government and the papacy. — It is a con- 
test between the Stal^nd the Church for supremacy. — Effect of dual 
government in EnropcS-Declaration by the Vatican Council of its 
position as to Science. — ihe dogmatic constitution of the Catholic faith. 
— Its definitions respecting Oody Revelatioiiy Faithy Reason . — The 
anathemas it pronounces. — Its denunciation of modern civilization. 

The Ifotestant Evangelical Alliance and its acts, 

Gf^cral review of the foregoing definitions and acts, — Present condition of 
the cSntroversyy and its future prospects . . . p. 32V 




HISTOr.Y OF THE CONFLICT 

BETWEEN 


RELIGION AXD SCIE:NCE. 


ciiArTErw I. 

THE OIHGIX OF SCIi:X(’E. 


Religious condition of the Gr^rhs in the fourth centnrg before Christ,-— 
Their invasion of the Persian Phnjyire brings them in contact with 
new aspects of Xature^ and familiarizes them with new religious sgs- 
terns . — 7'hc military ^ enginaring, and scientific activity^ stimulated by 
the Macedonian campaigns^ hads to the cstahlishment in Alexandria 
of an institute^ the Museum^ for the. cultivation of knowledge by ex- 
periment^ observation^ and mathematical discussion. — It is the origin 
of Science. 


No spectacle can be presented to tlic tlioii^litful 
mind ihore solemn, more mouiTifu], tlian tliat of the 
dying of an ancient religion, wliicli ii>its day lias given 
consolation to many generations of .ncii. 

Four centuries before the birth of Christ, Greece 
was fast outgrowing her ancient faith. Her philoso- 
phers, in their studies of thd Avorkl, had been 4)ro- 
foundly impressed with the conti'ast between the 
jesty of the operations of Nature and the worthlfcssncss 
of the divinities of Olympus. Her historians, consid- 
ering the orderly course of political affaii-s, the manifest 
kO* 



2 


GREEK MYTHOLOGY. 


'^Miiiformity in the acts of men, and that there was no 
event occurring before their eyes for which they could 
not find an obvious cause in some preceding event, 
began to susp^t that the miracles and celestial JjjjSer- 
ventions, with which the old annals were filled", were 
only fictions. They .demanded, when the ago of th,e 
supernatural had ctfased, why oracles had become mute, 
and why there were now no more prodigies in the 
world. 

Traditions, descending from immemorial antiquity, 
and formerly accepted by pious men as unquestionable 
truths, had filled the islands of the Mediterranean and 
the conterminous countries with supernatural wonders — 
enchantresses, sorcerers, giants, ogres, harpies, gorgons, 
centaurs, cyclops. The azure vault was the floor of 
heaven ; there Zeus, sun’oimded by the gods with their 
wives and mistresses, hold his couii;, engaged in pur- 
suits like those of men, and not refraining from acts of 
human passion and crime. 

A sea-coast broken by numerous indentations, an 
archipelago with some of the most lovely islands in the 
world, inspired the Greeks with a taste for maritime 
life, for geographical discovery, and colonization. Their 
ships wandered all over the Black and Meditermnean 
‘Seas. The time-honored wonders that had been glori- 
fied in the Ody^y,” and sacred in public faith, were 
found to have no^istence. As a better knowledge of 
Nature was obtained, the sky was shown to be an illu- 
sion ; it was discovered that there is no Olympus, notli- 
ing,above but spg.ce aild stars. With the vanishing of 
^eir habitation,® the gods disappeared, both those of the 
loniaii type of Homer and those of the Doric of Hesiod. 

But this did not take place without resistance. At 
first, the public, and particularly its religious portion, do- 



^liFFECTS OP DISCOVERY AND CRJTICISM. 


3 


noigiced the rising doubts as atheism. They despoil^^ 
Bopie of the offenders of their goods, exiled otiiers; 
some they put to death. They asserted that what had 
hem believed by pious men in the ol^ times, and had 
Btoo!l*the test of ages, must necessarily be true. Then, 
^ the opposing evidence became irresistible, they were 
content to admit that these martels were allegories 
under which the wisdom of the ancients had concealed 
many sacred and mysterious things. They tried to rec- 
oncile, what now in their misgivings they feared might 
be myths, with their advancing intellectual state. But 
their efforts were in vain, for there are predestined 
phases through which on such an occasion public opin- 
ion must pass. What it has received with veneration it 
begins to doubt, then it offers now interpretations, then 
subsides into dissent, and ends with a rejection of the 
whole as a mere fable. 

In their secession the philosophers and liistorians 
were followed by the poets. Euripides incurred the 
odium of heresy. JEschylus narrowly escaped being 
stoned to death for blasphemy. But the frantic efforts 
' of those who are interested in supporting delusions 
must always end in defeat. The dcmomlization resist- 
lessly extended through every branch of literature, until 
at length it reached the common people. 

Greek philosophical criticism ha<l lent its aid to 
Greek philosophical discovery in this destruction of the 
national faith. It sustained by many arguments the 
wide-spreading unbelief. It compared the doctrines of 
the different schools with each^other^ and showed from 
their contradictions that man has no criterion of trutl^ 
that, since his ideas of what is good and what Ms evil 
differ according to the country in which he lives, they 
can have no foundation in Kature, but must be alto- 



4 


THE PEHSIAN EMPIKE. 


^^ether the result of education ; that right and wyong 
are nothing more than fictions created by society for its 
own purposes. In Athens, some of the more advanced 
classes had reac]^ed such a pass that they not only de^ed 
the unseen, the supernatural, they even affirmed th5t the 
world is only a day-dream, a phantasm, and that nothing 
at all exists* 

The topographical configuration of Greece gave an 
impress to her political Condition. It divided her people 
into distinct communities having confiicting interests, 
and made them incapable of centralization. Incessant 
domestic wars between the rival states checked her ad- 
vancement. She was poor, her leading men had be- 
come corrupt. They were ever ready to barter patriotic 
considerations for foreign gold, to sell themselves for 
Persian bribes. Possessing a perception of the beauti- 
ful as manifested in sculpture and architecture to a 
degree Jiever attained elsewhere either before or since, 
Greece had lost a practical appreciation of the Good 
and the True. 

While European Greece, full of ideas of liberty and 
independence, rejected the sovereignty of Pei-sia, Asiatic 
Greece acknowledged it without reluctance. At that 
time the Persian Empire in territorial extent was equal 
to half of modern Europe. It touched the waters of 
the Mediterranean, the ^gean, the Black, the Caspian, 
the Indian, the Persian, the Ked Seas. Through its 
territories there Ibwed six of the grandest rivers in the 
world — the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Indus, the Jax- 
artqp, the Oxus, tjie NHe, each more than a thousand 
miles in length. * Its surface reached from thirteen hun- 
dred feet below the sea-level to twenty thousand feet 
above. It yielded, therefore, every agricultural prod- 
uct. Its mineral wealth was boxmdless. It inherited the 



THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 


5 


prestige of the Median, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, 
the ‘Chaldean Empires, whose annals reached baclf* 
through more than twenty centuries. * 

• Persia, had always looked upon European Greece 
as peijtically insignificant, for it had sfe,rcely half the 
territorial extent of one of her satrapies. Her expedi- 
fions for compelling its obedience h|d, however, taught 
her the military qualities of its people. In her forces 
were incorporated Greek mercenaries, esteemed the very 
best of her troops. She did not hesitate sometimes to 
give the command of her armies to Greek generals, of 
her fleets to Greek captains. In the political convul- 
sions through which she had passed, Greek soldiei^ had 
often been used by her contending chiefs. These mili- 
tary operations were attended by a momentous result. 
They revealed, to the quick eye of these warlike mer- 
cenaries, the political weakness of the empire and the 
possibility of reaching its centre. After the death of 
Cyrus on the battle-field of Cuna.\a, it was demonstrated, 
by the immortal retreat of the ten thousiuul under 
Xenophon, that a Greek anny could force its way to 
and from the heart of Persia. 

That reverence for the military abilities of Asiatic 
generals, so profoundly impressed on the Greeks by 
such engineering exploits as the bridging of the Ilelles-. 
pont, and the cutting of the isthmus at Mount Athos by 
Xerxes, had been obliterated at Salamis, Platca, Mycale. 
To plunder rich Persian provinces had become an ir- 
resistible temptation. Such was the expedition of Ages- 
ilaus, the Spartan king, whose .brilliant successes were, 
liowever, checked by the Persian gov’epiment resorting 
fo its time-proved policy of bribing the neighl^prs dfc 
Sparta to attack her. “ I have been conquered by 
hirty thonsaml Persian archers,” bitterly exclaimed 



6 


INVASION OF PERSIA BY GREECE. 


Agesilaus, as he reembarked, alluding to the Persian 
coinj^the Dane, which was stamped with the image of 
an archer. 

At length Ailip, the King of Macedon, projeeltfed a 
renewal of these attempts, under a far more formidable 
organization, and wgth' a grander object. He managed 
to have himself appointed captain-general of all Greece, 
not for the purpose of a mere foray into the Asiatic 
satmpies, but for the overthrow of the Persian dynasty 
in the very centre of its power. Assassinated while his 
preparations were incomplete, he was succeeded by his 
son Alexander, then a youth. A general assembly of 
Greeks at Corinth had unanimously elected him in his 
father’s stead. There were some disturbances in Il- 
lyria ; Alexander had to march his army as far north as 
the Danube to quell them. During his absence the 
Thebans with some others conspired against him. On 
his return lie took Thebes by assault. He massacred 
six thousand of its inhabitants, sold thirty thousand for 
slaves, and utterly demolished the city. The military 
wisdom of this severity was apparent in his Asiatic cam- 
paign. He was not troubled by any revolt in his rear. 

In the spring n. c. 334 Alexander crossed the Hel- 
lespont into Asia. His army consisted of thirty-four 
thousand foot anQ four thousand horse. He had with 
him only seventy talents in money. He marched di- 
rectly on the Persian airny, which, vastly exceeding him 
in strength, was holding the line of the Granicus. IJe 
forced the passage^ of the river, routed the enemy, and 
the possession of«all Asia Minor, with its treasures, was 
tffo fruit of the victory. The remainder of that year 
he spent in the military organization of the conquered 
provinces. Meantime Dftrius, the Pei-aian king, had 



TOE ItACEDONIAN CAMPAIGN. 


* 


advanced an anny of six hundred thousand men to pre- 
vent' the passage of the Macedonians into Syria. "In »• 
battle that ensued among the mountain-defiles at !fesus, 
the Persians were again overthrown. So great was the 
slau^ter that Alexander, and Ptolemy, #one of his gen- 
erals, crossed over a ravine choked with dead bodies. 
It was estimated that the Persian loss was not less than 
ninety thousand foot and ten thousand horse. The 
royal pavilion fell into the conqueror’s hands, and with 
it the wife and several of the children of Darius. Syria 
was thus added to the Greek conquests. In Damascus 
were found many of the concubines of Darius and his 
chief officers, together with a vast treiisure. 

Before venturing into the plains of Mesopotamia 
for the final struggle, Alexander, to secure his rear and 
preserve his communications with the sea, marched 
southward down the Mediterranean coast, reducing the 
cities in his way. In his speech before the council of 
war after Issus, he told his generals that they must not 
pursue Darius with Tyre unsubdued, and Persia in pos- 
session of Egypt and Cyprus, for, if Persia sliould regain 
her seaports, she would transfer the war into Greece, 
and that it was absolutely necessary for him to bo sov- 
ereign at sea. With C^’prus and Egyjit in his posses- 
sion hq felt no solicitude about Greece. The siege of 
Tyre cost him more than half a year. In revenge 
for this delay, he crucified, it is saidf two tliousand of 
his prisoners. Jerusalem vohmtarily suri'endered, and 
therefore was treated leniently : but the passage of the 
Macedonian army into Egypt being obstructed at Gaza, 
the Persian governor of whiefi, Bette, made a most ob- 
stinate defense, that place, after a siege of two months 
was carried by assault, ten thousand of its men were 
massacred, and tfi© rest, with their wives and children. 



8 


CONQUEST OF EGYPT. 


sold into slavery. Beds himself was dragged alive 
riJlind the city at the chariot-wheels of the conqueror. 
There was now no further obstacle. The Eg 3 q)tians, 
who detested the Persian rule, received their invader 
with open arins.^ He organized the country in his^^wn 
interest, intrusting all its military commands to Mace- 
donian ofRcevs, and leaving the civil government in the* 
hands of native Egyptians. 

"While preparations for the final campaign were 
being made, he undertook a journey to the temple of 
Jupiter Ammon, which was situated in an oasis of the 
Libyan Desert, at a distance of two hundred miles. The 
oracle declared him to be a son of that god who, under 
the fonn of a serpent, had beguiled Olympias, hi? 
mother. Immaculate conceptions and celestial descents 
were so currently received in those days, that whoevei 
had greatly distinguished himself in the affairs of men 
was thought to be of supernatural lineage. Even in 
Koine, centuries later, no one could with safety have 
denied that the city owed its founder, Komulus, to an 
accidental meeting of the god Mars with the virgin 
Khea Sylvia, as she wont with her pitcher for v/ater to 
the spring. The Egyptian disciples of Plato would 
have looked with anger on those who rejected the 
legend that Perictione, the mother of that great phi- 
losopher, a pure virgin, had suffered an immaculate 
conception through the influences of Apollo, and that 
the god had declared to Ariston, to whom she was be- 
trothed, the parentage of the child. When Alexander 
issued his letters, orders^ and decrees, styling himself 
'‘King Alexander,' the son of Jupiter Ammon,” they 
o«5:uo tQ the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria with an 
authority that now can hardly be realized. The free- 
thinking Greeks, however,. put on such q supematural 



GREEK CONQUEST OP PERSIA. ^ 

pedigree its proper value. Olympias, who, of course, 
better than all others knew the facts of the case, 
jestingly to say, that “she wished Ale.xander would 
cease from incessantly embroiling her with Jupiter’s 
wife*” Arrian, the historian of the Ik^cedonian expe- 
dition, observes, “ I cannot condemn him for endeavor- 
ing to draw his subjects into the belief of his divine 
origin, nor can I be induced to thinic it any great crime, 
for it is very reasonable to imagine that he intended no 
more by it than merely to procure the greater authority 
among his soldiers.” 

All things being thus secured in his rear, Alexander 
having returned into Syria, directed the march of hia 
aniiy, now consisting of fifty thousand veterans, east- 
ward. After crossing the Euphrates, he kept close to 
the jdasian hills, to avoid the intense heat of the more 
southerly Mesopotamian jdains ; more abundant forage 
could also thus be procured for the cavaliy. On tho 
left bank of the Tigris, near Arbcla, he encountered 
the great army of eleven hundred thousand men brought 
up by Darius from Ilabylon. The death of tho Persian 
monarch, udiich soon followed the defeat he suffered, 
left the Macedonian general master of all the countries 
from the Danube to the Indus. Eventually he extended 
his coiiqucst to the Ganges. The treasures he seized 
are almost beyond belief. At Susa alone he found — so 
Airiaii says — fifty thousand talents iif money. 

The modem military student cannot look upon these 
wonderful campaigns without admiration. The passage 
of the Hellespont ; the forcing of the Granicus ; the 
winter spent in a political organization of conquered Asia 
Minor ; the march of the right wing’and centre of tjjo 
army along the Syrian Mediterranean coast ; tlie engi- 
neering difficulties overcome at the siege of Tyre ; the 



10 


EVENTS OF TEE CAMPAIGNS. 


storming of Gaza ; the isolation of Persia from Greece ; 
tliKP-bsolnte exclusion of her navy from the Mediter- 
ranean ; the check on all her attempts at intrieminfir wiUi 
or bribing Athenians or Spartans, heretofore so often 
resorted to with success; the submission of Egypt; 
another winter spent in the political organization of 
that venerable country j the convergence of the whole 
army from the Blact and Red Seas toward the nitre- 
covered plains of Mesopotamia in the ensuing spring ; 
the passage of the Euphrates fringed with its weeping- 
willows at the broken bridge of Thapsacus ; the crossing 
of the Tigris ; the nocturnal reconnaissance before the 
great and memorable battle of Arbela; the oblique 
movement on the field; the piercing of the enemy^s 
centre — a manoeuvre destined to be repeated many cen- 
turies subsequently at Austerlitz ; the energetic pursuit 
of the Persian monarch; these are exploits not sur- 
passed by any soldier of later times. 

A prodigious stimulus was thus given to Greek in- 
tellectual activity. There were men who had marched 
with the Macedonian army from the Danube to the 
Nile, from the Nile to the Ganges. They had felt 
the hyperborean blasts of the countries beyond the 
Black Sea, the simooms and sand-tempests of the Egyp- 
tian deserts. They had seen the Pyiumids which had 
already stood for twenty centuries, the hieroglyph- 
covered obelisks of* Luxor, avenues of silent and mys- 
terious sphinxes, colossi of monarchs who reigned in 
the morning of the world. In the halls of Esar-haddon 
they had stood before the thrones of grim old Assyrian 
kings^ guarded by cringed bulls. In Babylon there still 
ro^aained its walls, once more than sixty miles in com- 
pass, and, after the ravages of three centuries and three 
conquerors, still more than eighty feet in height ; there 



EFFECTS ON THE CHEEK ARMY. 


11 


were still the rains of the temple of cloud-encompassed 
Bel*, on its top was planted the observatory wherein,Ae 
weird Chaldean astronomers had held noctumal'eom- 
rAunion with the stars ; still there were vestiges of the 
two •palaces with their hanging gardens in which were 
great trees growing in mid-air, and the -svreck of the 
hydraulic machinery that had supphed theqi with water 
from the river. Into the artificial lake with its vast 
apparatus of aqueducts and sluices the melted snows of 
the Armenian mountains found their way, and were 
confined in their couree through the city by the em- 
bankments of the. Euphrates. Most wonderful of all, 
perhaps, was the tunnel under the river-bed. 

If Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon, presented stupendous 
and venerable antiquities reaching far back into the 
night of time, Persia was not witliout her wonders of a 
later date. The pillared halls of Persepolis were filled 
with miracles of art — carvings, sculptures, enamels, 
alabaster libraries, obelisks, sphinxes, colossal bulls. 
Ecbatana, the cool suinincr retreat of the Persian kings, 
was defended by seven encircling walls of hewn and 
polished blocks, the interior ones in succession of in- 
creasing height, and of different colora, in astrological 
accordance with the seven planets. The palace was 
roof c4 with silver tiles, its beams were plated with gold. 
At midnight, in its halls the sunlight was rivaled by 
many a row of naphtha ei’essets. A paradise — that lux- 
ury of the mo7iarcli8 of the East — was planted in the 
midst of tho city. The Persian Empire, from the Hel- 
lespont to the Indus, was tnily tho gaixlcn of the world. 

I have devoted a few pages to tho story pf thcM 
marvelous campaigns, for the military talent they fos- 
tered led to the establishment of the mathematical and 



12 


EFFECTS ON THE GREEK aRMI. 


practical schools of Alexandria, the true origin of sci- 
eift^ We trace back all our exact knowledge to the 
Macedonian campaigns. Humboldt has well observed, 
that an introduction to new and grand objects of Na- 
ture enlarges thd human mind. The soldiers of Alex- 
ander and the hosts of his camp-followers encountered 
at every march unexpected and picturesque scenery. 
Of all men, the Greeks were the most observant, the 
most readily and profoundly impressed. Here there 
were interminable sandy plains, there mountains whose 
peaks wore lost above the clouds. In the deserts were 
mirages, on the hill -sides shadows of fleeting clouds 
sweeping over the forests. They were in a land of 
amber-colored date-palms and cypresses, of tamarisks, 
green myrtles, and oleanders. At Arbela they had 
fought against Indian elephants ; in the thickets of 
tlie Caspian they had roused from his lair the lurking 
royal tiger. They had seen animals which, compared 
with those of Europe, were not only strange, but co- 
lossal — the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the camel, 
the crocodiles of the Nile and the Ganges. They had 
encountered men of many complexions and many cos- 
tumes : the swarthy Syrian, the olive-colored Persian, 
the black African. Even of Alexander himself it is re- 
lated that on his death-bed he caused his admiral, Near- 
chus, to sit by his gide, and found consolation in listen- 
ing to the adventures of that sailor — the story of his 
voyage from the Indus up the Persian Gulf. The con- 
queror had seen with astonishment the ebbing and flow- 
ing of the tides. He had«built ships for the exploration 
of the Caspian, supposing that it and the Black Sea 
nf!^ht bp gulfs of a great ocean, such as Nearchus had 
discovered the Persian and Red Seas to be. He liad 
fonned a resolution that his fleet should*' attempt the 



INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF PERSIA. 13 

• 

circjamnavigation of Africa, and come into the Mediter- 
ranean through the Pillars of Hercules — a feat whi^^J^t 
was aflSrmed, had once been accomplished by the Pha- 
raohs. 

*]^ot only her greatest soldiers, hut ^Iso her greatest 
j)hilosophers, found in the conquered empire much that 
might excite the admiration of Qreece. # Callisthenes 
obtained in Babylon a series of Chaldean astronomical 
observations ranging back through 1,903 years; these 
he sent to Aristotle. Perhaps, since they were on burnt 
bricks, duplicates of them may be recovered by modem 
research in the clay libraries of the Assyrian kings. 
Ptolemy, the Egyptian astronomer, possessed a Babylo- 
nian record of eclipses, going back 747 years before our 
era. Long-continued and close observations were ncces- 
sarv, before some of these astronomical results that have 
]*ea(*he(l our times could have been ascertained. Tlius 
tlie Babylonians had fixed the length of a tropical year 
within twenty-five seconds of the truth ; their estimate of 
the sidereal year was barely two minutes in excess. They 
had detected the precession of the equinoxes. They 
knew the causes of eclipses, and, by the aid of their cycle 
called Saros, could predict them. Their estimate of the 
value of that cycle, which is more than 0,585 days, was 
within nineteen and a half minutes of the truth. 

Such facts furnish incontrovertiblp ])roof of the pa- 
tience and skill with which astronomy had been culti- 
vated in Mesopotamia, and that, with very inadequate 
instrumental means, it had reached no inconsiderable 
perfection. These old observx'rs had made a catalogue 
of the stars, had divided the zodiac hito twelve Sgns ; 
they had parted the day into twelve hours, the night 
into twelve. They had, as Aristotle says, for a long 
time devoted*themselves to Dbservations of star-occulta- 



14 


INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF PERSIA. 


tions by the moon. They had correct views of the 
sK^gture of the solar system, and knew the order of 
emplacement of the planets. They constructed sun- 
dials, clepsydras, astrolabes, gnomons. 

Not without interest do we still look on speoSnens 
of their method of printing. Upon a revolving roller 
they engraved, in c^eiform letters, their records, and, 
running this over plastic clay formed into blocks, pro- 
duced ineffaceable proofs. From their tile -libraries 
we are still to reap a literary and historical harvest. 
They were not without some Imowledge of optics. The 
convex lens found at Nimroud shows that they were 
not unacquainted with magnifying instruments. In 
arithmetic they had detected the value of position in 
the digits, though they missed the grand Indian inven- 
tion of the ci 2 )her. 

What a spectacle for the conquering Greeks, who, 
up to this time, had neither experimented nor observed 1 
They had contented themselves with mere meditation 
and useless speculation. 

But Greek intellectual development, due thus in 
part to a more extended view of Nature, was powerful- 
ly aided by the knowledge then acquired of the religion 
of the conquered country. The idolatry of Greece had 
always been a horror to Persia, who, in her invasions, 
had never failed fo destroy the temples and insult the 
fanes of the bestial gods. The impimity with which 
these sacrileges had been perpetrated had made a pro- 
foimd impression, and did no little to undermine Hel- 
lenic faith. But now the worshiper of the vile Olym- 
pian* divinities, whose obscene lives must have been 
Aocki^g to every pious man, was brought in contact 
with a grand, a solemn, a consistent religious system, 
having its foundation on a* philosophical basis. Persia, 



ITS RELIGIOUS CONDITIO^!. 


15 


as Js the case with all empires of long duration, had 
pas^ through many changes of religion. She ha^f lol- 
lowed the Monotheism of Zoroaster ; had then accepted 
f>ualism, and exchanged that for Magianism. At the 
timfl^of the Macedonian expedition, sh^ recognized one 
universal Intelligence, the Creator, Preserver, and Gov- 
ernor of all things, the most holly «Bsence truth, the 
giver of all good. He was not to be represented by 
any image, or any graven form. And, since, in every 
thing here below, we see the resultant of two opposing 
forces, under him were two coequal and coetemal prin- 
ciples, represented by the imagery of Light and Dark- 
ness. These principles are in never-ending conflict. 
The world is their battle-ground, man is their prize. 

In the old legends of Dualism, the Evil Spirit was 
said to have sent a serpent to ruin the paradise which 
the Good Spirit had made. These legends became 
known to the Jews during their Babylonian captivity. 

The existence of a principle of evil is the necessary 
incident of the existence of a principle of good, as a 
shadow is the necessary incident of the presence of 
light. In this manner could be explained the occur- 
rence of evil in a world, the maker and ruler of Avhich 
is supremely good. Each of the personified principles 
of light and darkness, Ormuzd and Ahriman, had his 
subordinate angels, his counselors, his armies. It is 
the duty of a good man to cultivate truth, purity, and 
industry. lie may look forward, when this life is over, 
bo a life in another world, and trust to a resurrection of 
the body, the immoi*tality of the sojil, and a conscious 


future existence. 

In the later years of the empire, the principles Sf 
Magianism had gradually prevailed more and more over 
hose of Zordaster. Magiaiiism was essentially a wor- 

TTHsirpara 



16 


DEATH OF ALEXANDER. 


sWp of tlie elements. Of these, fire was considered as 
tn^Enost worthy representative of the Supreme Being. 
On altars erected, not in temples, but imder the blue 
canopy of the sky, perpetual fires were kept burning, 
and the rising sun was regarded as the noblest objfect of 
human adoration. In the society of Asia, nothing is 
visible but the morftirch ; in the expanse of heaven, all 
objects vanish in presence of the sun. 

Prematurely cut off in the midst of many gi’eat pro- 
jects, Alexander died at Babylon before he had com- 
pleted liis thirty-third year (n. c. 323). * There was a 
suspicion that he had been poisoned. His temper had 
become so unbridled, his passion so ferocious, that his 
generals and even his intimate friends lived in contin- 
ual dread. Clitus, one of the latter, he in a moment of 
fury liad stabbed to the heart. Callisthenes, the inter- 
medium between himself and Aristotle, he had caused 
to be hanged, or, as was positively asserted by some 
who knew the facts, had had him put upon the rack and 
then crucified. It may have been in self-defense that 
the conspirators resolved on his assassination. But 
surely it was a calumny to associate the name of Aris- 
totle with this transaction. He would have rather borne 
the worst that Alexander could inflict, than have^joined 
in the perpetratioai of so great a crime. 

A scene of confusion and bloodshed lasting many 
years ensued, nor did it cease even after the Macedonian 
generals had divided the empire. Among its vicissi- 
tudes one incident maiifly claims our attention. Ptole- 
my, who was a sou of King Philip by Arsinoe, a beautiful 
Concubine, and who in his boyhood had been driven 
into exile with Alexander, when they incurred their 
father’s displeasure, who had been Alexander’s com- 



FOUNDATION OF ALEXANDRIA. 


17 


•ade.iu many of Lis battles and sill liis campaigns, 
•aipe governor and eventually king of Egypt. 

At the siege of Rhodes, Ptolemy had been of such 
signal ser^^cc to its citizens that in gratitude tliey paid 
diving honors to him, and saluted him the title of 
Soter (the Savior). By that designation — Ptolemy 
Sotcr — he is distinguished from sueoeeding kings of the 
Macedonian dynastj^ in Egypt. 

lie established his seat of government not in any of 
[he old capitals of ^le country, but in Alexandria. At 
[he time of the expedition to the temple of Jupiter 
\mmon, the Macedonian conqueror had caused the 
foundations of that city to be laid, foreseeing that it 
miglit be made the commercial entrepot between Asia 
and Europe. It is to be particularly remarked that not 
only did Alexander himself deport many Jews froni 
Palestine to people the city, and not only did Ptolemy 
Soter bring one liimdred tliousand more after his siege 
of Jerusalem, but Philadelphus, his successor, redeemed 
from slavery one hundred and ninety-eight thousand 
of that people, paying their Egyptian owjicrs a just 
money equivalent for each. To all these Jews the 
same privileges were accorded as to tlic iracedonians. 
In consequence of this considerate treatment, vast num* 
bers of* their compatriots and many Syrians voluntarily 
came into Egypt. To them the designation of Ilelle- 
nistical Jews was giv^en. In like manner, tempted by 
the benign government of Soter, mullitudes of Greeks 
sought refuge in the country, and the invasions of 
Perdiccas and Antigonus showed tl^at Greek soldiers 
vv'ould desert from other Macedonian •generals to join 
his annies. 

The population of Alexandria was therefore of three 
distinct natiorftilities : 1. XatiVe Egyptians; 2. Greeks; 

, c 



18 THE ALEXANDRIAN MUSEUM. 

3^ews— a fact that has left an impress on the religions 
faiSi of modem Europe. 

Greek architects and Greek engineers had mqde 
Alexandria tlie most beautiful city of the ancient world. 
They had fillecl it with magnificent palaces, temples, 
theatres. In its centre, at the intersection of its two 
grand avenfies, whfbh crossed each other at right angles, 
and in tlie midst of gardens, fountains, obelisks, stood 
the mausoleum, in which, embalmed after the manner 
of the Egyptians, rested the body of Alexander. In a 
funereal journey of two years it had been brought with 
great pomp from Babylon. At first the cofiin was of 
pure gold, but this having led to a violation of the 
tomb, it was replaced by one of alabaster. But not 
these, not even the great light-house, Pharos, built of 
blocks of white marble and so high that the fire con- 
tinually burning on its top could be seen many miles off 
at sea — the l^haros counted as one of the seven wonders 
of the world — it is not these magnificent achievements 
of architecture that arrest our attention ; the true, the 
most glorious monument of the Macedonian kings of 
Egypt is the ^luseum. Its inlluences Avill last when 
even the Pyramids have passed away. 

The Alexandrian Museum was commenced by Ptol- 
emy Soter, and was completed by his soil Ptolemy 
Philadelphus. ht was situated in the IJnichion, the aris- 
tocratic cpiarter of the city, adjoining the king's palace. 
Built of marble, it was surrounded with a piazza, in 
which the residents might walk and converse together. 
Its /Hnilptured apartmertts contained the Philadelphian 
library, and wcili crowded with the choicest statues and 
pictur^?^. This library eventually comprised four hun- 
dred thousand volumes. In the course of time, probably 
on account of inadequate accommodation for so many 



19 


THE ALEXANDRIAN MUSEUM. 

t 

boojcs, an additional library ^vas cstablislied in tlie a^a- 
cent quarter Kliacotis, and placed in the SerapioA' or 
temple of Serapis. The number of volumes in this 
literary, which was called the Daughter of that in the 
MusAim, was eventually three hundred fliousand. There 
were, therefore, seven hundred thousand volumes in 
these royal collections. 

Alexandria was not merely the capital of Eg}q)t, it 
was the intellectual metropolis of the world. Here it 
was truly said the Genius of the East met the Genius 
of the AVest, and this Paris of antiquity became a focus 
of fashionable dissipation and universal skepticism. In 
the allurements of its bewitching society even the Jews 
forgot their patriotism. They abandoned tlie language 
of tlieir forefathers, and adopted Greek. 

In the establishment of tlie IMuseum, Ptolemy Soter 
and his son Philadclphus had tlirce olqects in view: 1. 
The perpetuation of such knowledge as was tlieii in 
the world ; 2. Its increase; 3. Its dilfusion. 

1. For tlie perpetuation of knowledge. Orders were 
given to the chief librarian to buy at the king’s expense 
whatever books he could. A l>ody of transcribers was 
maintained in the Museum, whose duty it was to make 
(‘orrect copies of such works as their owners were not 
disposed to sell. Any books brought liy foreigners into 
Egypt were taken at once to the Museum, and, when 
correct copies had been made, tlie transcript was given 
to the owner, and the original jdac.ed in the library. 
Often a very large pecuniary indemnity was paid. Thus 
it is said of Ptolemy Euergetes tlia(^ having obtained 
from Athens the works of Euripides,* Sophocles, and 
-Eschylus, he sent to their owners transcripts, tc^jether* 
with about fifteen thousand dollars, as an indemnity. 
On his return* from the Syrian expedition he carried 



20 


ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSEUM. 

in triumph all tlio Egyptian monuments from Ec- 
ba?feia and Susa, ^vhicli Cambyses and other invadeiis 
had removed from Egypt. These he replaced in their 
original seats, or added as adornments to his museums. 
When works were translated as well as transcribed, 
Bums which wo should consider as almost incrediblp 
were paid, is was the case with the Septuagint transla- 
tion of the Bible, ordered by Ptolemy Philadelphus. 

2. For the increase of knowledge. One of the chief 
objects of the Museum was that of serving as the home 
of a body of men who devoted themselves to study, and 
were lodged and maintained at the king’s expense. Oc- 
casionally he himself sat at their table. Anecdotes con- 
nected willi tho-e festive ocrasions have descended to 
our times. In the original organization of the Museum 
the residents were divided into four faculties — litera- 
ture, mathematics, astronomy, medicine. Elinor branches 
were apj)ropriately classiiied under one of these general 
heads; thus natural history was considered to he a 
hrancli of medicine. An officer of very great distinc- 
tion presided over the establishment, and liad general 
charge of its interests. Demetrius Phalarcns, perhaps 
the most learned man of Ids age, who had been gov- 
ernor of Athens for many years, was the lirst so ap- 
pointed. Under him was the librarian, an 'office some- 
times held by men whose names have descended to our 
times, as Eratosthenes, and Apollonius Jihodius. 

Ill connection with the ^[useum were a botanical and 
a zoologi(’al garden. These g:irdens, as their names im- 
portp were for tlu^ purpose of facilitating the study of 
plants and aniiftals. There was also an astronomical 
observatory containing armillary spheres, globes, solsti- 
tial and ecpiatorial armils, astrolabes, parallactic rules, 
and other apparatus then* in use, the graduation on the 



ORGANIZATION OF THE MUSEUM. 


31 


divided instruments being into degrees and sixths. On 
the*floor of this observatoiy a meridian line was dr^Vrii. 
The want of correct means of measuring time and tem- 
ptrature was severely felt; the clepsydra of Ctcsibiiis 
ans\^3rcd very imperfectly for the foruicr, the hydrom- 
eter floating in a cup of water for the latter ; it meas- 
ured variations of temperature by ^ariatioijs of density, 
ridladelphus, who toward the close of his life was 
haunted with an intolerable dread of death, devoted 
much of his time to the discovery of an elixir. For 
such pursuits the S[useum was provided with a chemical 
laboratory. In spite of the prejudices of the age, and 
(‘Specially in spite of Egyptian prejudices, there was In 
connection with the medical department an anatomical 
room for the dissection, not only of the dead, but actually 
of the living, who for crimes had been condemned. 

8. For the diflusion of knowledge. In the Museum 
was given, by lectures, conversation, or other a])propriato 
methods, instruction iirall the various departments of 
Inmian knowledge. There Hocked to this great intel- 
lectual centre, students from all countries. It is said 
that at one time not fewer than fourteen thousand were 
in attcTidance. Subsequently even the (djrislian church 
received from it some of the most eminent of its Fathers, 
as (dejiicns Alexandrinus, Origeii, Athanasius. 

The library in the Museum was ^airiit during tlie 
siege of Alexandria by Julius Ciesar. Td make amends 
for this great loss, that collected by Enmenes, King of 
Pergamus, was presented by ^lark Antony to (^necii 
(dcopatra. Originally it was ^founded as a rival to tliat 
of the Ptolemies. It was added to flie collection >n the 
IScrapion. 


It remain# now to describe briefly the philosopliical 



basis of the Museum, and some of its contnoutions lo 
the^tock of human knowledge. 

In memory of the illustrious founder of this moiSt 
noble institution — an institution which antiquity de- 
lighted to call “fbe divine school of Alexandria ”y-^we 
must mention in the first rank his ^‘History of the 
Campaigns of Alexander.” Great as a soldier and as a 
sovereign, Ptolemy ^oter added to his glory by being 
an author. Time, which has not been able to destroy 
the memory of our obligations to him, has dealt unjustly 
by his work. It is not now extant. 

As might be expected from the friendship that ex- 
isted between Alexander, Ptolemy, and Aristotle, the 
Aristotelian philosophy was the intellectual corner-stone 
on which the Museum rested. King Philip had com- 
mitted the education of Alexander to Aristotle, and 
during the Persian campaigns the conqueror contributed 
materially, not only in money, but otherwise, toward 
the “Natural History” then in preparation. 

The essential principle of the Aristotelian philosophy 
was, to rise from the study of i)articularsto a knowledge 
of genei’al principles or nniversals, advancing to them 
•by induction. The ijuluction is the more certain as the 
facts on which it is based are more numerous ; its cor- 
rectness is established if it shoidd enable us to predict 
other facts until then unknown. This system implies 
endless toil in the collection of facts, both by experi- 
ment and obsci-vation ; it implies also a close meditation 
on them. It is. therefore, essentially a method of labor 
and of reason, not a method of imagination. The fail- 
ures that Aristotlc*himse*lf so often exhibits are no 
p^pof of its unreliability, but rather of its trustworthi- 
ness. Tliey are failures arising from want of a suffi- 
ciency of facts. 



ETHICAL SCHOOL OF THE MUSEUM. 


23 


Some of the general results at whicli Aristotle ar- 
rived are very grand. Thus, he concluded that cvc^y 
thing is ready to hurst into life, and that the various 
organic forms presented to us hy Nature are those 
frliJoli existing conditions permit Should the condf 
tions mange, the forms will also change. Hence there 
ij an unbroken chain from the sijnplc element through 
plants and animals up to man, th*e dillefent groups 
merging by insensible shades into each other. 

The inductive philosophy thus established by Aris- 
totle is a method of great })0wcr. To it all the modern 
advances in science arc due. In its most improved 
form it rises by inductions from phenomena to theii 
causes, and then, imitating the method of tlie Academy, 
it descends by deductions from those causes to the 
detail of phenomena. ^ 

AVhilc thus the Scientific School of Alexandria was 
founded on the maxims of one great Athenian ])liiloso- 
])licr, the Ethical School was founded on tlie maxims of 
another, for Zeno, though a Cy])riote or Pluenician, liad 
for many years been estaldi.shed at Athens. Jlis disci- 
ples took the name of Stoics. Ilis doctrines long sur- 
vived him, and, in times when there was no other con- 
solation for man, ollercd a support in thi‘ hour of trial, 
and an unwavering guide in tlie vicissitudes of life, not 
only to* illustrious Cl reeks, but also to many of the great 
philosophers, statesmen, generals, and eij^j)eJ*()rs of Koine. 

The aim of 'Lewo was, to furnish a guide for tlie daijy 
practice of life, to make men virtuous. He insisted 
that education is the true, foundation (^f virtue, for, if 
we know what is good, we shafl inclkie to doit. ,We 
must trust to sense, to furnish the dafa of knowledge, 
and reason will suitably combiiK; them. In this the 
affinity of Zeno to Arij-totle is plainly seen. Every ap- 



21 


THE PRINCIPLES OF STOICISM. 


petite, lust, desire, springs from imperfect knowledge, 
otir nature is imposed upon us by Fate, but we must 
loam to control our passions, and live free, intelligent, 
virtuous, in all things in accordance with reason. Our 
existence shoul^ be intellectual, wc should survey •with 
equanimity all pleasures and all pains. Wo should 
never forget that we* arc freemen, not the slaves 6i 
society. “ 1 possess,” said the Stoic, a treasure which 
not all the world can rob me of — no one can deprive 
me of death.” Wc should remember that Nature in 
her operations aims at the universal, and never spares 
individuals, but uses them as means for the accomplish- 
ment of her ends. It is, therefore, for us to submit to 
Destiny, cultivating, as the things necessary to virtue, 
knowledge, temperance, fortitude, justice. Wc must 
rciiiember that every thing around us is in mutation ; 
decay follows reproduction, and reproduction decay, and 
that it is useless to repine at death in a world where 
everything is dying. As a cataract shows from year 
to year an invariable shape, though the water composing 
it is perpetually changing, so the aspect of Nature is 
nothing more than a flow of matter presenting an im- 
])crmanent form. The universe, considered as a whole, 
is unchangeable. Nothing is eternal but space, atoms, 
force. The forms of Nature that we see are essentially 
transitory, they ^nist all pass away. 

W<^ must bear in mind that the majority of men are 
imperfectly educated, and hence we must not needlessly 
olfend the religious ideas of our age. It is enough for 
us ourselves to know that, thougli there is a Supreme 
Fewer, there is nt) Supreme Doing. There is an in- 
visible principle, but not a personal God, to whom it 
would oc not so mucli blasphemy as absurdity to impute 
the form, the sentimcnt.% the passions ,of man. All 



STOICISM IN THE MUSEUM. 


25 

revelation is, necessarily, a mere fiction. That which 
men call chance is only the effect of an unknown can'se. 
Even of chances there is a law. There is no such thing 
as* Providence, for Nature proceeds under iiTcsistiblo 
laws,*and in this respect the univei'se^ is only a vast 
automatic engine. The vital force which pervades the 
Trorld is what the illiterate call God. The modifica- 
tions through which all things are running take place 
in an irresistible way, and hence it may be said that the 
progress of the world is, under Destiny, like a seed, it 
can evolve only in a predetermined mode. 

The soul of man is a spark of the vital flame, the 
general vital principle. Like heat, it passes from one 
to another, and is iinally I’cabsorbcd or reunited in the 
universal iwinciplo from which it came. Hence wo 
must not e.xpcct annihilation, but reunion ; and, as .the 
lired man look.s forward to the insensibility of sleep, so 
the philosopher, weary of the world, should look for- 
ward to the tranquillity of extinction. Of these things, 
however, we .should think doubtingly, t.incc the mind 
can produce no certain knowlc<lgc from its internal re- 
sources alone. It is unphiloso])hic.al to inquire into first 
causes ; we must deal only with jthenomcna. Above all, 
wc must never forget that man cannot ascertain absolute 
truth, and that the final restdt of human imjuiry into 
the matter is, that wo arc incapable of jierfcet knowl- 
edge ; that, even if the truth be in our j)o.ssession, wo 
cannot be sure of it. 

AVhat, then, remains for us ? Ls it not this — the .ac- 
quisition of knoM’lcdge, the cultivation of virtue and of 
friendship, the observance of faith .Tnd tnith, an imre- 
pining submission to whatever befalls* us, a life led i^ 
accordance with reason ? 



26 


PLATONISM IN THE MUSEUM. 


But, thougli tlie Alexandrian Museum was especially 
intfended for the cultivation of the Aristotelian philoso- 
phy, it must not he supposed that other systems were 
excluded. Platonism was not only carried to its full 
development, hut in the end it supplanted Perip^teti- 
cism, and through the New Academy left a permanent 
impress on Christianity. The philosophical method of- 
Plato was tlie inverse of that of Aristotle. Its start- 
ing-point was. univcrsals, the very existence of which 
was a matter of faith, and from these it descended to 
particulars, or details. Aristotle, on the contrary, rose 
from particulars to univcrsals, advancing to them hy 
inductions. 

Plato, therefore, trusted to the imagination, Aris- 
totle to reason. The former descended from the de- 
oomposition of a primitive idea into particulars, the lat- 
ter united particulars into a general conception. Hence 
the method of Plato was capable of quickly producing 
what seemed to he splendid, though in reality unsuh- 
stantial results ; that of Aristotle was more tardy in its 
operation, hut much more solid. It implied endless 
labor in the collection of facts, a tedious resort to ex- 
periment and observation, the application of demonstra- 
tion. The philosophy of Plato is a gorgeous castle in 
the air ; that of Aristotle a solid structure, laboriously, 
and with many failures, founded on the solid roct. 

An appeal to ^he imagination is much more alluring 
than the employment of reason. In the intellectual de- 
cline of Alexandria, indolent methods were preferred to 
laborious observation and severe mental exercise. The 
schoojs of Neo-Plalonisni were crowded with specula- 
tive mystics, such as Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus, 
^jflicse tdok the place of the severe geometers of the old 
Museum. 



PHYSICAL SCIENCE IN THE MUSEUM. 27 

The Alexandrian school offers the first example of 
that system which, in the hands of modem physicists, 
has*led to such wonderful results. It rejected imagina- 
tion, and made its theories the expression of facts ob- 
tained tby experiment and observation, a^ed by mathe- 
matical discussion. It enforced the principle that the 
t Aie method of studying Nature is by expeiimental in- 
terrogation. The researches of Archimedes in specific 
gravity, and the works of Ptolemy on optics, resemble 
our present investigations in experimental philosophy, 
and stand in striking contrast with the speculative vaga- 
ries of the older writers. Laplace says that tlie only 
observation which the history of astronomy offers us, 
made by the Greeks before the school of Alexandria, is 
that of the summer solstice of the year b. c. 432, by 
Melon and Euctemon. We have, for the first time, in 
that school, a combined system of observations made 
with instruments for the measurement of angles, and cal- 
culated by trigonometrical methods. Astronomy then 
took a foim which subsequent ages could only j^erfcct. 

It does not accord with the compass or the intention 
of this work to give a detailed account of the contribu- 
tions of the Alexandrian Museum to the stock of human 
knowledge. It is sufficient that the reader should ob- 
tain a general impression of their charg^ter. For par- 
ticulars, I may refer him to the sixth chapter of my 
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.” 

It has just been remarked that tlie Stoical philoso- 
phy doubted whether the mind can ascertain absolute 
truth. While Zeno was indulging* ^n such doubts, 
Euclid was preparing his great work, destined to dial-* 
lenge contradiction from the whole human race. After 
more than twenty-two centuries it still survives, a model 



28 


EUCLID— ARCHIMEDES. 


of accuracy, perspicuity, and a standard of exact demon- 
stration. This great geometer not only wrote on other 
mathematical topics, such as Conic Sections and Porisrns, 
but there arc imputed to him treatises on Harmonics 
and Optics, tl^e latter subject being discussed on the 
hypothesis of rays issuing from the eye to the object. 

With the Alc^xandrian mathematicians and physi- 
cists must be classed Archimedes, though he event- 
ually resided in Sicily. Among his mathematical worhs 
were two books on tlie Sphere and Cylinder, in which 
he gave the demonstration that the solid content of a 
sphere is two-thirds that of its circumscribing cylinder. 
So higlily did he esteem this, that ho directed the dia- 
irram to be ciii^ravcd on his tombstone. lie also treated 
of the ([uadrature of the circle and of the parabola ; ho 
wrote on Conoids and Spheroids, and on the spiral that 
bears his name, the genesis of which was suggested to 
him by his friend Conon the Alexandrian. As a mathe- 
matician, Europe produced no ecpial to him for nearly 
two thousand years. In idiysical scienc'c he laid the 
foundation of h^ drostatics ; invented a method for the 
determination of si)ecific gravities; dls(aisse(l the ecpiilib 
riuni of Heating l)odies ; discovered the true theory of the 
hiver, and invented a screw, which still hears his name, 
for raising the water of the Xile. To him alsc) arc to 
be attributed t\ie endless sca-ew, and a peculiar form of 
burning-mirror, by which, at the sit\gc of Syracuse, it is 
said that he set the Komau lleet on tire. 

Eratosthenes, who at one time had charge of the 
library, was the autlujr of many important works. 
AuKUur them mifv’ be mentioned his determination of 
•the interval between the tropics, and an attempt to as- 
certain the size of the earth. He considered the articu- 
lation and expansion of continents, the position of inoun- 



I^RATOSTHEXES— APOLLONIUS— HIPPARCHUS. 


29 


tlie action of clouds, tlie geological suLmer- 
siqn of lands, the elevation of ancient sea-beds, the opeu- 
ino* of the Dardanelles and the straits of Gibraltar, and 
the relations of the Eiixine Sea. He composed a complete 
systeih of the earth, in three books — physical, mathe- 
matical, historical — accomi>anlcd by a map of all the 
parts then known. It is only of iatc years that the 
fragments remaining of his Chronicles of the Theban 
Kings” have been justly appreciated. For many cen- 
turies they were thrown into discredit by the authority 
of our existing absurd theological chronology. 

It is unnecessary to adduce the arguments relied 
upon by the Alexandrians to prove the globular form 
of the earth. They had correct ideas resi)ecting tlu‘ 
doctrine of the sphere, its poles, axis, ofpiator, arctic and 
antjirctic circles, erpnnoctial points, solstices, the distri- 
Inition of climates, etc. I cannot do more than mere- 
ly allude to the treatises on Conic Sections and on 
IMaxima and Minima by Apollonius, who is said to have 
been the lirst to introduce the words t‘lli[>se and hy])er- 
b(.!a. Ill like manner I must ])ass the astronomical 
observations of Ari>tyllns and Timocharis. It was to 
those of the latter oji S[)i(*a Yirginis tliat J li])j)archu8 
was indebted for his great dis('overv of the pr(‘cessioii 
of the rejninoxes. JIij)parchus also determined tlie iii*st 
inequality of the moon, the equation of'ihe centre. He 
a<lopted the theory of epicycles and eccentrics, a geo- 
metrical conce])tion for the ])urpose of resolving the ajv 
parent motions of the heavenly bod l(*s on the principle 
of circular movement. He also uiujertook to make a 
cataloffue of tlie stars bv the mcthod«of alincations — 
that is, l)y indicatin'; those tliat arc in the sa«nc ap- 
parent straight line. The miinher of stars so catalogued 
was 1,0S(). If he thus attenlptcd to depict the aspect 



30 


THE SYNTAXIS OF PTOLEMY. 


of* the sky, he endeavored to do the same foi the surface 
of the earth, by marking the position of towns and 
other places by lines of latitude and longitude. Jle 
was the first to construct tables of the sun and moon. 

In the midst of such a brilliant constellation of 
geometers, astronomers, physicists, conspicuously shines 
forth Ptolemy, thb author of the great W’ork, “ Syn- 
taxis,” “a Treatise on the Mathematical Construction 
of the Heavens.” It maintained its ground for nearly 
fifteen hundred years, and indeed w'as only displaced by 
the immortal ‘^Principia” of Newton. It commences 
with the doctrine that the earth is globular and fixed in 
space, it describes the construction of a table of chords, 
and instruments for observing the solstices, it deduces 
the obliquity of the ecliptic, it finds terrestrial latitudes 
by the gnomon, describes climates, shows how ordinary 
may be converted into sidereal time, gives reasons for 
prcfeiTing the tropical to the sidereal year, furnishes 
the solar theory on the principle of the sun's mbit being 
a sim'ple eccentric, explains the equation of time, ad- 
vances to the discussion of the motions of the moon, 
treats of the iirst inequality, of her eclipses, and the 
motion of her nodes. It then gives Ptolemy’s own 
great discovery — that which has made his name immor- 
tal — the discovery of the moon’s evcction or sedond in- 
equality, reducing it to the epicyelic theory. It attempts 
the determination of the distances of the sun and moon 
from the earth — with, however, only partial success. It 
considers the precession of the equinoxes, the discovery 
of Ilipparchus, the full •j^)eriod of which is twenty-five 
thousand years.* It gives a catalogue of 1,022 stars, 
treats 6f the nature of the milky-way, and discusses in 
the most masterly manner the motions of the planets. 
This point constitutes another of Ptolerny^s claims to 



31 


IXVENTIOX OF THE STEAM-ENOIXE, 

t 

scientific fame. His determination of the planetary 
01‘bits was accomplislied bj comparing his own observa- 
tions with those of former astronoinci's, amonjr them 
the observations of Tiinocliaris on the planet Venns. 

In* the Museum of Alexandria, CtAibius invented 
the fire-engine. Ilis pupil, Hero, impuoved it by giving 
it two cylinders. There, too, the •first steam-engine 
worked. This also was the invention of Hero, and 
was a reaction engine, on the principle of tlio eolipile. 
The silence of the halls of Serapis w^as broken by the 
water-clocks of Ctesibius and Apollonius, which drop by 
drop measured time. AVhen the Homan calendar had 
fallen into such confusion that it had become absolutely 
necessary to rectify it, Julius (Jaisar brought Sosigenes 
tlie astronomer from Alexandria. Hy his advice the 
lunar year was abolished, the civil year regulated en 
tirely by the sun, and the Julian calendar introduced. 

The Macedonian rulers of Hgypt have been blamed 
for the manner in which they dealt with the religious 
sentiment of their time. They ])rostituted it to the 
]>urpose of state-craft, finding in it a means of governing 
their lower classes. To the intelligent they gave j)hi- 
losophy. 

But^ doubtless they defended this policy by the ex- 
perience gathered in those great cam]>algns which had 
made the Greeks the foremost nation of the world.- 
They had seen the mythological conceptions of their 
ancestral country dwindle into fables ; the wonders with 
which the old poets adorned the l^^editerranean had 
been discovered to be baseless illusions. • From Olym'jms 
its divinities had disappeared; indeed, Olympus itself * 
had proved to be a phantom of the imagination. Hades 
had lost its terrors; no placcf could be found for it. 



32 


POLICY OF THE PTOLEMIES. 


From the woods and grottoes and rivers of Asia Minor 
the local gods and goddesses had departed ; even their dev- 
otees began to doubt whether they had ever been there. 
If still the Syrian damsels lamented, in their amorous 
ditties, the fate^of Adonis, it was only as a recollection, 
not as a reality. ^ Again and again had Persia changej^ 
her national faith. ^ For the revelation of Zoroaster she 
had substituted Dualism ; then under new political in- 
fluences she liad adopted Magianism. She had wor- 
shiped fire, and kept her altars burning on mountain- 
tops. She had adored the sun. When Alexander came, 
she was fast falling into pantheism. 

On a country to which in its political extremity the 
indigenous gods have been found unable to give any 
protection, a change of faith is impending. The ven- 
erable divinities of Egypt, to whose glory obelisks had 
been raised and temples dedicated, had again and again 
submitted to the sword of a foreign conqueror. In the 
land of the Pyramids, the Colossi, the Sphinx, the 
images of the gods had ceased to represent living reali- 
ties. They had ceased to be objects of faith. Others of 
more recent birth were needful, and Serapis confronted 
.Osiris. In the shops and streets of Alexandria there 
were thousands of Jews who had forgotten the God that 
had made his habitation behind the veil of the temple. 

Tradition, i^vclation, time, all had lost tlicir influ- 
ence. The traditions of European mytliology, the j’evc- 
lations of Asia, the tlmc-coiisecratcd dogmas of Egypt, 
all had passed or were fast passing away. And the 
Ptolemies rccogn^.cd hewv ephemeral are forms of faith. 

!lhit the Ptolemies also recognized that there is some- 
• thing more durable than forms of faith, which, like tlie 
organic forms of geological ages, once gone, are clean 
gone forever, and have ik) restoration, no return. They 



THE MUSEUM AND MODEKM SCI5XCE. 


33 


recognized that within this world of transient delusioua 
and unrealities there is a world of eternal truth. 

That world is not to be discovered through the vain 
traditions that have brought down to us the opinions of 
men who lived in the morning of ci\yiization, nor in 
tte dreams of mystics who tbouglit tliat they were in- 
spired. It is to be discovered by the investigations of 
geometr}', and by the practical interrogation of Nature. 
These confer on humanity solid, and innumerable, and 
inestimable blessings. 

The day will never come when any one of the proj> 
ositions of Euclid will be denied; no one henceforth 
will call in question the globular shape of the earth, as 
recognized by Eratosthenes ; the world will not permit 
the great physical inventions and discoveries made in 
Alexandria and Syracuse to be forgotten. The names 
of Hipparchus, of Apollonius, of Ptolemy, of Archi- 
medes, will be mentioned with reverence by men of 
every religious profession, as long as there are men to 
speak. 

The Musenm of Alexandria was thus the birthplace 
of modem science. It is true that, long before its es- 
tablishment, astronomical observations had been made 
in China and Mesopotamia ; the mathematics also had 
been cultivated with a certain degree of success in In- 
dia. But in none of these countries had investigation 
assumed a connected and consistent form ; in none was 
physical experimentation resorted to. The character- 
istic feature of Alexandiian, ais of modern science^ is, 
that it did not restrict itself to observation, but relied 
on a practical interrogation of Nature. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. — ITS TOANSFORMATION ON 
ATTAINING BIl’ERIAL POWER. — ITS RELATIONS TO SCI- 
ENCE. 


JtdigiouH condition of Hie Roman Republic. — The adoption of imperialism 
leads to monotheism . — Chrutianitff spreads over the Roman Empire . — 
The circumstances wuler which it attained imperial power make its 
union with Paganism a political necessity. — ItrtulliavUs description of 
its doctrines and practices. — Debasing effect of the policy of Con^ 
stantine on it. — Its alliar^jcs with the cifil power. — Its incompatibility 
with science, — Destruction of the Alexandrian Library and prohibi- 
tion of philosophy. — Exposition of the Augustinian philosophy and 
Patristic science generally. — The Scriptures made the standard oj 
science. 


In a political sense, Christianity is the bequest of 
the Roman Empire to the world. 

At the epoch of the transition of Rome from tho 
republican to the imperial form of governmenfr, all the 
independent nationalities around the Mediterranean Sea 
had been brought under the control of that central 
power. The conquest that had befallen them in succes- 
sion had been by no means a disaster. The perpetual 
wars they had nyiiiitained with each other came to an 
end; the miseiies their conflicts had engendered were 
exchanged for universal peace. 

Not only as a token of the conquest she had made, 
but also as a gratificatioA to her pride, 'the conquering 



MONOTHEISM IN THE ROMAN EJIPIRB. 


35 


republic brought the gods of the vanquished peoples to 
Kpme. With disdainful tolemtion, she permitted the 
worship of them all. That paramount authority exer- 
cised by each divinity in his original seat disappeared 
at oAce in the crowd of gods and goddesses among 
whom he had been brought. ^ Alrimdy, as wo have 
seen, through geographical discoveries and philosophi- 
cal criticism, faith in the religion of the old days had 
been profoundly shaken. It was, by this policy of 
Koine, brought to an end. 

The kings of all the conquered provinces had van- 
ished ; in their stead one emperor had come. The gods 
also had disappeared. Considering the connection which 
in all ages has existed between political and religious 
ideas, it was then not at all stmnge that polytheism 
should manifest a tendency to pass into monotheism. 
Accordingly, divine honors w'cre paid at first to the 
deceased and at length to the living emperor. 

The facility with which gods were thus called into 
existence had a powerful moral effect. The iiianufact- 
lire of a new one cast ridicule on the origin of the old. 
Incarnation in the East and apotheosis in the West were 
fast filling Olympus with divinities. In the East^ gods 
descended from heaven, and were made incarnate in 
men ; hi the West, men ascended from earth, and took 
their seat among the gods. It was not the importation 
of Greek skepticism that made Koine skeptical. The 
excesses of religion itself sapped the foundations of faith. 

Not with equal rapidity did all classes of the popula- 
tion adopt monotheistic views. • The merchants and law^- 
yers and soldiers, who by the nature df their pursuits^ 
are more familiar wuth the vicissitudes of life, arAl have 
larger intellectual views, were the first to be affected, 
the land laborfirs and farmers *the last. 



36 


ipE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY 


When the empire in a military and political sense 
had reached its culmination, in a religious and social 
aspect it had attained its height of immorality. It had 
become thoroughly epicurean ; its maxim was, that life 
should be made I feast, that virtue is only the seasoning 
of pleasure, and ^mpcrance the means of prolonging it^ 
Dining-rooius glittering with gold and incrusted with 
gems, slaves in superb apparel, the fascinations of fe- 
male society where all the women were dissolute, mag- 
nificent baths, theatres, gladiators, such were the objects 
of Roman desire. The conquerors of the world had 
discovered that the only thing worth worshiping is 
Force. By it all things might be secured, all that toil 
and trade had laboriously obtained. The confiscation 
of goods and lands, the taxation of provinces, were the 
reward of successful warfare ; and the emperor was the 
symbol of force. There was a social splendor, but it 
was the phosplioresccnt corruption of the ancient Medi- 
terranean world. 

In one of the Eastern provinces, Syria, some persons 
In very humble life had associated themselves together 
for benevolent and religious purposes. The doctrines 
they held were in hannony with that sentiment of uni- 
versal brotherhood arising from the coalescence of the 
conquered kingdoms. They were doctrines inctilcated 
by Jesus. 

The Jewish people at that time entertained a belief, 
founded on old traditions, that a deliverer would arise 
among them, who would restore them to their ancient 
eplcndor. The disciples* of Jesus regarded him as this 
Jong^expected Messiah. But the priesthood, belie\nng 
tliat the doctrines he taught were prejudicial to their inter- 
ests, denounced him to the Roman governor, who, to sat- 
isfy their clamors, reluctanfly delivered hiifi over to death. 



THE RISE OF CnRISTIANlTY. 


37 


Jlis doctrines of benevolence and buraan brothcr- 
iiood outlasted that event. The disciples, instead of 
scattering, organized. They associated themselves on a 
pnnciple of communism, each throwing into the com- 
mon «tock whatever property he posseted, and all his 
^ains. The widows and orphans o^the community 
were thus supported, the poor and the sic|L sustained. 
From this germ was developed a new, and as the events 
proved, all-powerful society — the Church ; new, for noth- 
ing of the kind had existed in antiquity ; powerful, for 
the local churches, at first isolated, soon began to confed- 
erate for their common interest. Through this organ- 
ization Christianity achieved all her political triumphs. 

As we have said, the military domination of Romo 
had brought about univei’sal peace, and had generated 
a sentiment of brotherhood among the vanquished na- 
tions. Things Avei'e, therefore, propitious for the rapid 
diffusion of the newly-establislicd — the Christian — prin 
ciple throughout the empire. It spread from Syria 
througli all Asia Minor, and successively reached Cy- 
prus, Greece, Italy, eventually extending westward as 
far as Gaul and Britain. 

Its propagation was hastened by missionaries who 
made it known in all directions. None of the ancient 
classical philosophies had ever taken advantage of such 
a means. 

Political conditions determined the boundaries of 
the new religion. Its limits were eventually those 
of the Roman Empire ; Rome, doubtfully the place of 
death of Peter, not Jerusalem, indisputably the place 
of the death of our Savior, became th«5 religious capital. 
It was better to have possession of the imperial seven^^ 
hilled city, than of Gethseraane and Calvary with all 
their holy soi^venirs. 



38 


IT GATHERS POLITICAL POWER. 


For many yearn Christianity manifested itself ,as a 
system enjoining three things — ^toward God veneration, 
in personal life purity, in social life benevolence. In 
its early days of feebleness it made proselytes only 'by 
persuasion, but,ias it increased in numbers and infllience, 
it began to exhjJjit political tendencies, a disposition to 
form a government within the government, an empire 
within the empire. These tendencies it has never since 
lost. They are, in truth, the logical result of its de- 
velopment. The Homan emperors, discovering that it 
was absolutely incompatible with the imperial system, 
tried to put it down by force. This was in accordance 
with the spirit of their military maxims, which had 
no other means but force for the establishment of con- 
formity. 

In the winter a. u. 302-’3, the Christian soldiers in 
some of the legions refused to join in the time-honored 
solemnities for propitiating the gods. The mutiny 
spread so quickly, the emergency became so pressing, 
that the Emperor Diocletian was compelled to hold a 
council for the purpose of determining what should bo 
done. The difficulty of the position may perhaps bo 
appreciated when it is understood that the wife and the 
daughter of Diocletian himself were Christians. lie 
was a man of great capacity and large political viwvs ; ho 
recognized in flie opposition that must be made to the 
new party a political necessity, yet he expressly enjoined 
that there shoxild be no bloodshed. But who can con- 
trol an infuriated civil commotion? The church of 
Nicomedia was razed to .the ground ; in retaliation the 
impfirial palace .was set on lire, an edict w'as oj>enly 
Insulted and tom down. The Christian officers in the 
army were cashiered ; in all directions, martyrdoms and 
massacres wei'o taking place. So resistless was tbo 



THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EHFEROR. 


39 


luarch of events, that not even the emperor himself 
could stop the perseention. 

"it had now become evident that the Christians con- 
stitiited a powerful party in the state, animated with 
indignation at the atrocities they had sxillcred, and do 
terinined to endure them no longer, ^fter the abdiea- 
tfon of Diocletian (a. d. 305), Cons^tine, one of tlie 
competitors for the pui-ple, perceiving the advantages 
that would accrue to him from such a policy, put him- 
self forth as the head of the Christian party. This gave 
him, in every part of the empire, men and women 
ready to encounter fire and sword in his behalf ; it gave 
him imwavering adherents in every legion of the armies. 
In a decisive battle, near the Milvian bridge, victoiy 
crowned his schemes. The death of Maximin, and 
subsequently that of Licinius, removed all obstacles. 
Ho ascended the throne of the Cajsars — the liret Chris* 
tian emperor. 

Place, profit, power — these were in view of whoever 
now joined the conquering sect. Crowds of worldly 
persons, who cared nothing about its religious ideas, be- 
came its warmest supporters. Pagans at lieart, their 
influence was soon manifested in the paganization of 
Christianity that forthwith ensued. Tlie empei’or, no 
better than they, did nothing to check their proceed- 
ings. But ho did not personally coiifojwn to the cere- 
monial requirements of the Church until the close of. 
his evil life, a. d. 337. 

That we may clearly appreciate the modifications 
now impressed on Christianity — modifications which 
eventually brought it in conflict with* science — we must 
have, as a means of comparison, a statement of what it* 
was in its purer days. Such, fortunately, we find in 
the “ Apology, or Defense of .the Christians against the 



40 TERTULLUN’S EXPOSITION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

• 

Accusations of the Gentiles,” written by Tertullian, at 
Home, during the persecution of Severus. He ad- 
dressed it, not to the emperor, but to the magistrates 
who sat in judgment on the accused. It is a solemn 
and most canmst expostulation, setting forth a21 that 
could be said in^xplanation of the subject, a represen- 
tation of tl\e belief and cause of the Christians made In 
the imperial city in the face of the whole world, not a 
querulous or passionate ecclesiastical appeal, but a grave 
historical document. It has ever been looked upon as 
one of the ablest of the early Christian works. Its date 
is about A. n. 200. 

With no inconsiderable skill Tertullian opens his 
argument. He tells the magistrates that Christianity 
is a stranger upon earth, and that she expects to meet 
with enemies in a country which is not her own. She 
only asks that she may not be condemned unheard, and 
that Homan magistrates will permit her to defend her- 
self ; that the laws of the empire will gather lustm, if 
judgment be passed upon her after she has been tried, 
but not if she is sentenced without a hearing of her 
cause ; that it is unjust to hate a thing of which we are 
ignorant, even though it may be a thing worthy of hate ; 
that the laws of Home deal with actions, not with mere 
names; but that, notwithstanding this, persons have 
been pimished^because they were called Christians, and 
that without any accusation of crime. 

Ho then advances to an exposition of the origin, the 
nature, and the effects of Christianity, stating that it is 
founded on the llebre\^ Scriptures, which are the most 
venerable of a]! ‘books. He says to the magistrates: 
“ The^books of Moses, in which God has inclosed, as in 
a treasure, all the religion of the Jews, and consequent- 
ly all the Christian religion, reach far beyond the oldest 



T^TULLIAK’S EXPOSITIOX OP CHBISTIANITT. 41 

• 

you^have, even beyond all your public monuments, tbo 
establishment of your state, the foundation of many 
great cities — all that is most advanced by you in all 
agbs of history, and memory of times ; the invention 
of letters, which are the interpreters of sciences and the 
guardians of all excellent things, l^hink I may say 
fiiore — ^beyond your gods, your tempire, your oracles and 
sacrifices. The author of those books lived a thousand 
years before the siege of Troy, and more than fifteen 
hundred before Homer,” Time is the ally of truth, 
and wise men believe nothing but what is certain, and 
what has been verified by time. The principal author- 
ity of these Scriptures is derived from their venerable 
antiquity. The most learned of the Ptolemies, who 
was sumamed Philadelphus, an accomplished prince, by 
the advice of Demetrius Phalareus, obtained a copy of 
these holy books. It may be found at this day in his 
library. The divinity of these Scriptures is proved by 
this, that all that is done in our days may bo found pre- 
dicted in them ; they contain all that has since passed 
in the view of men. 

Is not the accomplishment of a prophecy a testimony 
to its truth ? Seeing that events which are past havo 
vindicated these prophecies, shall we be blamed for trust- 
ing thpm in events that aro to come ? Now, as we be- 
lieve things that have been prophesiceVand have come 
to pass, so we believe things that have been told us, 
but not yet come to pass, because they have all been 
foretold by the same Scriptures, as well those that are 
verified every day as those th%t still remain to be ful- 
fiUed. 

These Holy Scriptures teach us that there is on'i 
God, who made the world out of nothing, who, though 
daily seen, is invisible ; his infiniteness is known only 



42 TEBTULLIA!rS EXPOSITION OF CHRISTIANIITT. 


to himself; his immensity conceals, but at the ^ame 
time discovers him. He has ordained for men, accord- 
ing to their lives, rewards and punishments ; ho will 
raise all the dead that have ever lived from the ci’eation 
of the world, will command them to reassumt? their 
bodies, and thempon adjudge them to felicity that has 
no end, or tp eterritl flames. The fires of hell are those 
hidden flames which the earth shuts up in her bosom. 
He has in past times sent into the world preachers or 
prophets. The prophets of those old times were Jews ; 
they addressed their oracles, for such they were, to the 
Jews, who have stored them up in the Scriptures. On 
them, as has been said, Christianity is founded, though 
the Christian differs in his ceremonies from the Jew. 
We are accused of worshiping a man, and not the God 
of the Jews. Not so. The honor we bear to Christ 
does not derogate from the honor we bear to God. 

On account of the merit of these ancient patriarchs, 
the Jews were the only beloved people of God ; he de- 
lighted to be in communication with them by his own 
mouth. By him they were raised to admirable great- 
ness. But with perversity they wickedly ceased to re- 
gard him ; they changed his laws into a profane wor- 
ship. He warned them that he would take to himself 
servants more faithful than they, and, for their .crime, 
punished them 'by driving them forth from their coun- 
try. They are now spread all over the world ; they 
wander in all parts; they cannot enjoy the air they 
breathed at their birth ; they have neither man nor God 
for their king. As he threatened them, so he has done. 
Ho has taken, in. all nations and countries of the earth, 
people .more faithful than they. Through his prophets 
he had declared that these should have greater favors, 
and that a Messiah shouldpcome, to publish a new law 



TEgTULLIAN’S EXPOSITION OF CnRISTIANITY. 43 


among them. This Messiah was Jesus, who is also God. 
Foi; God may be derived from God, as the light of a 
candle may be derived from the light of another candle. 
God and his Son are the self-same God — a light is the 
same Ifght as that from which it was ta]^n. 

The Scriptures make known two cmningsof tlie Son 
0? God; the first in humility, tli6 semnd at the day of 
judgment, in power. The Jews might have known all 
this from the prophets, but their sins have so blinded 
them that they did not recognize him at his first coming, 
and are still vainly expecting him. They believed that 
all the miracles wrought by him were the work of magic. 
The doctors of the law and the chief priests were en- 
vious of him ; they denounced him to Pilate. He was 
crucified, died, was buried, and after three days rose 
again. For forty days he remained among his disciples. 
Tlien he was environed in a cloud, and rose up to 
heaven — a tnith far more certain than any human 
testimonies touching the ascension of Komulus or of 
any other Eoinan prince mounting up to the same 
place. 

Tertullian then describes the origin and nature of 
devils, who, under Satan, their prince, produce dis- 
eases, irregularities of the air, plagues, and the blighting 
of the blossoms of the earth, who seduce men to offer 
sacrifices, that they may have the blood 6f the victims, 
which is their food. They are as nimble as the birds, • 
and hence know every thing that is passing upon earth; 
they live in the air, and henoe can spy what is going on 
in heaven ; for this reason they can impose on men 
feigned prophecies, and deliver oracles. Thus they 
announced in Home that a victory would be oh^ined ' 
over King Perseus, when in truth they knew that the 
battle was already won. They falsely cure diseases; 



44 TERTULLIAN’S exposition of CHRISTIANITY. 


for, taking possession of the body of a man, they pro- 
duce in him a distemper, and then ordaining some rcm- 
edy to be used, they cease to afflict him, and men tfflnk 
that a cure has taken place. 

Though Christians deny that the emperor is a god, 
they nevertheiMS pray for his prosperity, because the 
general dissoluti^ that threatens the universe, the con- 
flagration of the world, is retarded so long as the glorious 
majesty of the triumphant Homan Empire shall last. 
They desire not to be present at the subversion of all 
Nature. They acknowledge only one republic, but it is 
the whole world; they constitute one body, worship one 
God, and all look forward to eternal happiness. Not 
only do they pray for the emperor and the magistrates, 
but also for peace. They read the Scriptures to nourish 
their faith, lift up their hope, and strengthen the confi- 
dence they have in God. They assemble to exhort one 
another ; they remove sinners from their societies ; they 
have bishops who preside over them, approved by the 
suffrages of those whom they are to conduct. At the 
end of each month every one contributes if he will, but 
no one is constrained to give; the money gathered in 
this manner is the pledge of piety ; it is not consumed 
in eating and drinking, but in feeding the poor, and 
burying them, in comforting children that are destitute 
of parents add goods, in helping old men who have 
spent tlie best of their days in the service of the faith- 
ful, in assisting those who have lost by shipwreck what 
they had, and those who are condemned to the mines, 
or have been banished .to islands, or sliut up in prisons, 
be&iuso they professed the religion of the true God. 
There is but one thing that Christians have not in com- 
mon, and that one thing is their wives. They do not 
feast as if they should die to-morrow, not build as if they 



TERTULLIAN’S EXPOSITION OP CIiniSTIAKITY. 45 


should never die. The objects of their life are inno- 
cence, justice, patience, temperance, chastity. 

To this noble exposition of Christian belief and life 
in his day, Tertullian does not hesitate to add an omi- 
nous warning to the magistrates he ii addressing — 
oi^inous, for it was a forecast of a gre^ event soon to 
come to pass : “ Our origin is but recent, yet already we 
fill all that your power acknowledges — cities, fortresses, 
islands, provinces, the assemblies of the people, the 
wards of Kome, tlie palace, the senate, the public places, 
and especially the armies. We have left you nothing 
but your temples. Keflect what wars wo are able to 
undertake ! With what promptitude might we not arm 
ourselves were we not restrained by our religion, which 
teaches us that it is better to be killed than to kill 1 ” 

Before he closes his defense, Tertullian renews an 
assertion which, earned into practice, as it subsequently 
was, affected the intellectual development of all Europe, 
lie declares that the Holy Scriptures are a treasure from 
which all the true 'wisdom in the world has been drawn ; 
that every philosopher and every poet is indebted to 
them. lie labors to show that they are the standard and 
measure of all truth, and that whatever is inconsistent 
with them must necessarily be false. 

From Tertullian’s able wwk w'e see what Christi- 
anity was while it was suffering 2 )ersccution and strug- 
gling for existence. We have now to see what it be- 
came when in possession of imperial power. Great is 
the difference between Christianity under Severus and 
Christianity after Constantine. 'Many^f the doctrines 
which at the latter period were ])rcemir/cnt, in the for- 
mer were unknown. 

Two causes led to the amalgamation of Cliristianity 
with paganism' 1. The politicSI necessities of the new 



46 


FAGANIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 


dynasty ; 2. The policy adopted by the new religion to 
insure its spread. 

1. Though the Christian party had proved itself 
sufficiently strong to give a master to the empire, it was 
never sufficiency strong to destroy its antagonist) pagan- 
ism. The issu^of the struggle between them was |in 
amalgamation of the principles of both. In this, Chris- 
tianity differed from Mohammedanism, which absolutely 
annihilated its antagonist, and spread its own doctrines 
without adulteration. 

Constantine continually showed by his acts that he 
felt ho must be the impartial sovereign of all his people, 
not merely the representative of a successful faction. 
Hence, if he built Christian churches, he also restored 
pagan temples ; if he listened to the clergy, he also con- 
sulted the haruspices ; if he summoned the Council of 
Nicea, ho also honored the statue of Fortune ; if he 
accepted the rite of baptism, ho also struck a medal 
bearing his title of “ God.” Ilis statue, on the top of 
the great porphyry pillar at Constantinople, consisted 
of an ancient image of Apollo, whose features were re- 
placed by those of the emperor, and its head surrounded 
by the nails feigned to have been used at the cruci- 
fixion of Christ, arranged so as to form a crown of 
glory. ^ 

Feeling that there must be concessions to tho de- 
feated pagan party, in accordance with its ideas, he 
looked with favor on tho idolatrous movements of his 
court. In fact, the leaders of these movements were 
peraons of his own family. 

3. To the ehiperor — a mere worldling — a man with- 
out ally religious convictions, doubtless it appeared best 
for himself, best for the empire, and best for the con- 
tending parties, Christiafi and pagan, to' promote ther 



CHRISTIANITY UNDER CONSTANTINE, 


47 


union or amalgamation as much as possible. Even sin- 
cerjB Christians do not seem to have been averse to this ; 
perhaps they believed that the new doctrines would dif- 
ivLse most thoroughly by incorporating in tliemselves 
ideas borrowed from the old, that Truth would assert her- 
self in the end, and the impurity bo off. In accom- 
plishing this amalgamation, Helena, tiio empress-mother, 
aided by the court ladies, led the way. For her gratifi- 
cation there were discovered, in a cavern at Jerusalem, 
wherein they had lain buried for more than tliree cen- 
turies, tlie Savior’s cross, and those of the two thieves, 
tlie inscription, and the nails that had been used. Tho;y 
were identified by miracle. A true relic-worship set in. 
The superstition of the old Greek times reappeared ; the 
times when the tools with which the Trojan horse was 
made might still be seen at Metapontum, the sceptre ol 
Pelops at CluTroneia, the spear of Achilles at Phasclis, 
the sword of Memnon at Nicomedia, vdien the Tegcates 
could show the hide of the Calydonian boar and very 
many cities boasted their possession of the true palla- 
dium of Troy ; wdien there were statues of Minerva that 
could brandish spears, paintings that could blush, im- 
ages that could sweat, and endless shrines and sanctua- 
ries at which miracle-cures could be performed. 

As -years passed on, the faith described by Tertul- 
lian was transmuted into one more fashionable and 
more debased. It was incorporated with tlie old Greek’ 
mythology. Oljmipus was restored, but the divinities 
passed mider other names. The more powerful prov- 
inces insisted on the adoptioir of tl^eir time-honored 
conceptions. Views of the Trinity, in accordance with 
Egyptian traditions, were established. Not only was 
the adoration of Isis under a new name restored, but 
even her image, standing on the crescent moon, reap- 



48 PAGANIZATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

peared. The well-known eflSgy of that goddess, with 
the infant Horns in her arms, has descended to our days 
in the heautifnl, artistic creations of the Madonna jind 
ChM. Such restorations of old conceptions under novel 
forms were everywhere received with delight. When 
it was announce^o the Ephesians that the Council of 
that place, headeal>y Cyril, had decreed that the Yirgin 
should bo called ‘‘ the Mother of God,” with tears of 
joy they embraced the knees of their bishop ; it was the 
old instinct peeping out; their ancestors would have 
done the same for Diana. 

This attempt to conciliate worldly converts, by adopt- 
ing their ideas and practices, did not pass without re- 
monstrance from those whose intelligence discerned the 
motive, You have,” says Faustus to Augustine, “ sub- 
stituted your agapai for tlie sacrifices of the pagans ; for 
their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the very 
same honors. You appease the shades of the dead with 
wine and feasts ; you celebrate the solemn festivities of 
the Gentiles, their calends, and their solstices ; and, as to 
their manners, those you have retained without any al- 
teration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans, 
* except that you hold your assemblies apart from them.” 
Pagan observances were everywhere introduced. At 
weddings it w^s the custom to sing hymns to Vtous. 

Let us pause here a moment, and see, in anticipa- 
tion, to what a depth of intellectual degradation this 
policy of paganization eventually led. Heathen rites 
were adopted, a pompous and splendid ritual, gorgeous 
robes, mitres, tiaras, w&x-tapers, processional services, 
lustrations, gold and silver vases, were introduced. The 
Homah lituus, the chief ensign of the augurs, became 
the crozicr. Churches were built over the tombs of 
martyrs, and consecrated Vith rites borrowed from the 



INTRODUCTlorf OP ROMAN RITES. 49 

ancient laws of the Koman pontiffs. Festivals and com- 
memorations of martyrs multiplied with the numberless 
fictitious discoveries of their remains. Fasting became 
the* grand means of repelling the devil and appeasing 
God ; helibacy the greatest of the virtues. Pilgrimages 
w^ere made to Palestine and the tombs of the martyrs. 
Quantities of dust and earth were nrouglit from the 
Iloly Land and sold at enormous prices, as antidotes 
against devils. The virtues of consecrated water were 
upheld. Images and relics were introduced into the 
churches, and worshiped after the fashion of the heathen 
gods. It was given out that prodigies and miracles were 
to be seen in certain places, as in the heathen times. 
The happy souls of departed Christians were invoked ; 
it was believed that they were wandering about tlip 
world, or haunting their graves. There was a multi- 
plication of temples, altars, and penitential garments. 
The festival of the purification of the Vii'gin was in- 
vented to remove the uneasiness of heathen converts on 
account of the loss of their Lupei’calia, or feasts of Fan. 
The worship of images, of fragments of the cross, or 
bones, nails, and other relics, a true fetich worship, was 
cultivated. Two arguments were relied on for the au- 
thenticity of these objects — the authority of the Church, 
and thcf working of miracles. Even the worn-out cloth- 
ingof the saints and the earth of their graves were ven- 
erated. From Palestine were brought what were af- 
firmed to be the skeletons of St. Mark and St. James, 
and other ancient worthies. The apotheosis of the 
old Homan times was replaced by cjyionization ; tute- 
lary saints succeeded to local inytholcgical divinific.s. 
Then came the mystery of transubstantiation, 9r the ‘ 
conversion of bread and wine by the priest into the 
flesh and blood of Christ. As centuries passed^ the 



50 


INTRODUCTION OF ROMAN RITE& 


paganization became more and more complete. Festi- 
vals sacred to the memory of the lance with which the 
SavioFs side was pierced, the nails that fastened him 
to the cross, and the crown of thorns, were instituted. 
Though there were several abbeys that possessed this 
last peerless relic, no one dared to say that it was im- 
possible they couitl all be authentic. 

Wo may read with advantage the rcmarlcs made by 
Bishop Newton on this paganization of Christianity. 
He asks : “ Is not tlie worship of saints and angels now 
in all respects the same that the worship of demons 
was in former times ? The name only is different, the 
thing is identically the same, . . . the deified men of the 
Christians are substituted for the deified men of tlie 
heathens. The promoters of this 'worship were sensible 
that it 'w^as the same, and that the one succeeded to the 
other ; and, as the worship is the same, so likewise it is 
performed with the same ceremonies. The burning of 
incense or perfumes on several altars at one and the 
same time; the sprinkling of holy w'ater, or a mixtiue 
of salt and common water, at going into and coming out 
of places of public w'orship ; tlie lighting up of a great 
•number of lamps and wax-candles in broad daylight 
before altars and statues of these deities ; the hanging 
up of votive offerings and rich presents as attestations 
of so many miraculous cures and deliverances from dis- 
eases and dangers; the canonization or deification of 
deceased wortliies; the assigning of distinct provinces or 
prefectures to departed heroes and saints ; the 'worship- 
ing and adoring pf the dead in their sepulchres, shrines, 
ana relics ; the consecrating and bowing down to im- 
ages ;«the attributing of miraculous powders and virtues 
to idols ; the setting up of little oratories, altars, and 
statues in the streets and highways, and on the tops of 



DEBASEMENT OF CURISTIANJtTY. 


51 


inoHntainfi ; the carrying of images and relics in pompous 
procession, with numerous lights and with music and 
singing; flagellations at solemn seasons under the notion 
of penance ; a great variety of religious ortiers and fra- 
ternifies of priests ; the shaving of priests, or the tonsure 
it is called, on the crown of th^ir Imds ; the imposing 
of celibacy and vows of chastity on the religious of both 
sexes — all these and many more rites and ceremonies are 
equally parts of pagan and popish superstition. Nay, 
the very same temples, tlie very same images, which 
were once consecrated to Jupiter and the other demons, 
are now consecrated to the Virgin Mary and the other 
saints. The very same rites and inscriptions are as- 
cribed to both, the very same prodigies and miracles 
are related of these as of those. In short, almost the 
whole of paganism is converted and applied to popery ; 
the one is manifestly formed upon the same plan and 
principles as the other ; so that there is not only a con- 
formity, but even a uniformity, in the worship of an- 
cient and modern, of heathen and (Christian Ibnue.^^ 
Thus far Hishop Newton ; but to return to the times 
of Constantine : though these concessions to old and 
|>opular ideas were pennitted and even cncouniged, tlio 
dominant religious party never for a moment liesitatcd 
to enforce its decisions by the aid of the. civil power- 
an aid which was freely given, ('on^tantino thus car- 
rie<l into effect the acts of the Coimcil of Nicea. In 
the affair of Arius, he even ordered that whoever should 
And a book of that heretic, and not bum it, should be 
put to death. In like manner Nestorius was by Theodo- 
sius the Younger banished to an Egyptian oasis. 

The pagan party included many of the old Aristo- 
cratic families of the empire ; it counted among its ad- 
l>erents all tfaeMisciples of the*old philosophical s(*hooI«. 



DfIBASEMENT OF CURISTIANITY. 


02 

It looked down on its antagonist with contempt; It 
asserted that knowledge is to he obtained only by the 
laborious exercise of human observation and human 
reason.i 

^Thc Christian party asserted that all knowledge is 
to bo found in t^e Scriptures and in the traditions gf 
the Church*; that, m the written revelation, God had not 
only given a criterion of truth, but had furnished us all 
that he intended us to know. The Scriptures, thci*e- 
fore, contain the sum, the end of all knowledge. The 
clergy, with the emperor at their back, would endure ii(» 
intellectual competition.! 

Tluis came into prominence what were tenned sa- 
cred and profane knowledge; thus came into presence of 
each other two opposing parties, one relying on human 
reason as its guide, the other (jn revelation. Paganism 
leaned for support on the learning of its ])hilosophcrs, 
Christianity on the inspiration of its Fathers, 

The Church thus set herself forth as the depository 
and arbiter of knowledge ; she was ever ready to resort 
to the civil power to compel obedience to her decisions. 
She thus took a course wliich determined her whole 
future career .' .she became a stumbling-block in the 
intellectual advancement of Europe for more than a 
thousfind years. 

The reign of Constantine marks the ci)och of the 
transformation of Christianity from a religion into a 
political system; and though, in one sense, that system 
was degraded into an idolatry, in another it had risen 
into a development of the old Greek mythology. The 
, maxim holds gbod in the social as well as in the me- 
chanical world, that, when two bodies strike, the form of 
both is changed. Paganism was inoditied by Christi- 
•iiity ; Christianity by PUganism. 



THE TRINITARIAN DISPUTE. 


53 


In the Trinitarian controversy, which first brolce out 
in. Egypt — Egypt, the land of Trinities — the chief point 
in discussion was to define the position of ‘Uhe Son.” 
Tfiere lived in Alexandria a presbyter of the name of 
Ariuf, a disappointed candidate for tlio office of bisliop. 
He took the ground that there was a time when, from 
the very nature of sonsliip, the ‘SoiAlid npt exist, and 
a time at which he commenced to be, asserting that it 
is the necessary condition of the filial relation that a 
father must bo older than his son. But this asscTtion 
evidently denied the coctemity of the three pei-sons of 
the Trinity; it suggested a subordination or ine^piality 
among them, and indeed implied a time when the 
Trinity did not exist. Hereupon, the bishop, who had 
been the successful competitor against Arius, displayed 
his rhetorical powers in public debates on the question, 
and, the strife spreading, the Jews and ]>agaTis, who 
formed a very large portion of the population of Alex- 
andria, amused themselves witli theatri<'al representa- 
tions of the contest on the stage — the ])oint of tlieir 
))urlesques being the equality of age of the Father and 
his Son. 

Such was tlie violence the controversy at Icngtli 
a'-sumed, that the matter had to be rcfcrnici to the em- 
peror^ At fir.st he looked upon the clispute as alto- 
gether frivolous, ami perhaps iu truth nicliiuMl to the 
assertion of Arius, tliat in the very nature of the thing 
a father must be older than his son. So great, however, 
was the j)ressure laid upon him, that he was eventually 
compelled to siirnnion the (*ouucil of Xicca, whicli, to 
disjx)se of the conflict, Set forth a foranulary or (Treed, 
ami attached to it this anathema : “The Holy Catholii? 
and Apostolic Church anathematizes those who say that 
there was a time when the %>on of God was not, and 



54 DISPERSION OF THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRART. 


that, before he was begotten, he was not, and that he 
was made out of nothing, or out of another substance 
or essence, and is created, or changeable, or alterable.'” 
Constantine at once enforced the decision of the council 
by the civil power. 

A few years subsequently the Emperor Theodosius 
prohibited sacrifices^ made the inspection of the entiuils* 
oi animals a capital offense, and forbade any one enter- 
ing a temple. lie instituted Inquisitors of Faith, and 
ordained that all wlio did not accord with the belief of 
JIamasus, the Bishop of liomc, and Peter, the Bishop of 
Alexandria, should be driven into exile, and deprived 
of civil rights. Those who presmned to celebrate Easter 
on the same day as tlie Jews, he condcirmcd to death. 
The Greek language was now ceasing to be known in 
the West, and true learning was becoming extinct. 

At this time the bishopric of Alexandria was held 
by one Thcophilus. An ancient temple of Osiris hav- 
ing been given to the (^hristians of the city for the site 
of a church, it happened that, in digging the foundation 
for the new edifice, the obscene symbols of the former 
worship chanced to be found. These, with more zeal 
than modesty, Thcophilus exhibited in the market-place 
to public derision. With less forbearance than the Chris- 
tian party showecl when it was insulted in the theatre 
during the Trinitarian dispute, the pagans resorted to 
violence, and a riot ensued. They held the JSerapion as 
their head<iuartcrs. Such were the disorder and blood- 
slied that the emperor had to interfere, lie dispatched 
a rescript to Alexandria, enjoining the hislnqi, Thcophi- 
lus, to destroy the yi^rapion ; and the great library, which 
had been collected by the Ptolemies, and had escaped 
the 111*0 of Julius Ciesar, w;ia by that fanatic dis|>ersed. 

The bishopric thus held by Theophiliis was in duo 



THE MURDER OF HYPATIA, 


55 


time, occupied by his nephew St, Cyril, who had com- 
uiended himself to the approval of the Alexandrian con- 
gregations as a successful and fashionable preacher. It 
wa^he who had so much to do with the introduction of 
the Avorship of the Virgin Mary. His hold upon the 
audiences of the giddy city was, hoAvever, much weak- 
ened by Hypatia, the daughter df Thcon, ^the mathe- 
matician, Avho not only distinguished hei*self by her expo- 
sitions of the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, but als^) 
by licr comments on the AVTitings of Apollonius and 
other geometers. Each day before her academy stood 
a long train of chariots; her lecture-room Avas crowded 
with the Ave.dth and fashion of Alexandria. They 
came to listen to her discourses on tliosc questions 
which man in all ages has ask'cd, ])ut which never yet 
have been ansAverccl : ‘‘What am I? Where am I? 
What can I know ?” 

Hypatia and Cyril ! Philosojdiy and bigotry. They 
cannot exist tugellier. So Cyril felt, and on that feel- 
ing he acted. As iryj)atia rej)airc(l to lior academy, sho 
was assaulted by (yriTs mob — a mob of many monks. 
Stripped naked in the street, sbe Avas dragged into a 
church, and there killed ])y the clnl) of J^eter the 
Reader. The corj^se Avas cut to ])ieces, the llesh was 
w*raped* from the bones Avitli shells, and flic remnants 
cast into a lire. For tliis frightful enhie Cyril Avas 
never called to ai^connt. Jt seemed to be admitted that 
the end siinctilied the means. 

So ended (ireek philosf)phy in Alexandria, so came 
to an untimely close the learning that the Ptolemies 
had done so much to proiimte. The •“ Daughter* Li- 
brary,” that of the Serapion, liad Ijcen dispersed.. The • 
fate of Hypatia Avas a AA'arning to all who would culti- 
vate profane kaowlcdge. IIeni?efortli there was to 1x5 no 



56 


PELAGIUS. 


Ireedom for human thought. Every one must think as 
the ecclesiastical authority ordered him, a. d. 414. . In 
Athens itself philosophy awaited its doom. J ustinian at 
length prohibited its teaching, and caused all its schools 
in that city to be closed. 

While these events were transpiring in the Eastern 
provinces of the Eoman Empire, the spirit that had 
produced them was displaying itself in the West. A 
British monk, who had assumed the name of Pelagius, 
passed through Western Europe and Northern Africa, 
teaching that death was not introduced into the world 
by the sin of Adam ; that on the contrary he was neces- 
sarily and by nature mortal, and had he not sinned he 
would neverlhcless have died; that the consequences of 
his sins were confined to himself, and did not affect his 
posterity. Emm these premises Pelagius drew certain 
important theological coiu'lu^ions. 

At Home, Pelagius had becai received with favor; at 
Carthage, at the instigation of St. Augustine, he was 
denounced. By a synod, held at Iliospolis, he was 
acquitted of heresy, but, on referring the matter to the 
Bishop of liome, Innocent I., he was, on the contrary, 
* condemned. It happened that at this moment Innocent 
died, and his successor, Zosimns, annulled his judgment, 
and declared the opinions of Pelagius to be orthodox. 
These contradictory decisiims are still often referred to 
by the opponents of papal iirtallibility. Things were in 
this state of confusion, when the wily ^Vfrican bishops, 
through the influence of Count Ahderins, procured from 
the emperor an (;diet deiionneing Pelagius as a heretic ; 
ho and his ai coinpliccs were eondcinncd to exile and the 
forfeiture of their gomls. To aflinu that death was in 
the world before the fall of Adam, was a state crime. 

It is very instructive^ to consider thfe principles on 



57 


CONDEMNATION OF PELAGIUS^ 

which this strange decision was founded. Since the 
question was purely philosophical, one might suppose 
that it would have been discussed on natural principles ; 
instead of that, theological considerations alone were ad- 
duced.* The attentive reader will have remarked, in 
TA'rtullian’s statement of the principles of Christianity, 
a complete absence of the doctrines of original sin, total 
depravity, predestination, grace, and atonement. The in- 
tention of Christianity, as set foi-tli by him, has nothing 
in common with the plan of salvation upheld two cen- 
turies subsequently. It is to St. Augustine, a Cartha- 
ginian, that we are indebted for the j^recision of our 
views on these important points. 

In deciding whether death had been in the world 
before the fall of Adam, or whether it was the penalty 
inflicted on the world for his sin, the course taken was 
to ascertain M'hcther the views of l^dngius were accord- 
ant or discordant not with Nature but Vlith the theolom 
cal doctrines of St. Augustine. Ami tl»e result has been 
such as might be expected. The doctrine declared to 
be orthodox by ecclesiastical authority is (o cTtlirown by 
the unquestionable discoveries of modern science*. Long 
before a human being ha<l appeared upon earth, mill- 
ions of individuals — nay, more, thousiinds of species 
and eveh genera — had died ; those which remain with ufl 
are an insignificant fraction of the vast hosts tliat have 
passed away. 

A consequence of great importance issued from the 
decision of the Pelagian controversy. The book of 
Genesis had been made the ba*sis of f diristianity. If, 
m a theological point of view, to its account of the sin 
in the garden of Eden, and the transgression ami pun- 
ishment of Adam, so much weiglit had been attached, it 
also in a pbilofephical point of view became the grand 



68 


ST. AUGUSTINE. 


authority of Patristic science. Astronomy, geology, ge- 
ography, anthropology, chronology, and indeed all the 
varions departments of human knowledge, were made 
to conform to it. 

As the doctrines of St. Augustine have had the 
effect of thus placing theology in antagonism with sci- 
ence, it may be interesting to examine briefly some of 
the more purely philosophical views of that great man. 
For this purpose, we may appropriately select portions 
of his study of the first chapter of Genesis, as contained 
in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books of his 
“ Confessions.” 

These consist of philosophical discussions, largely in- 
terspersed with rhapsodies. lie prays that God will 
give him to understand the Scriptm’cs, and will open 
their meaning to him ; he declares that in them there is 
nothing superfluous, but that the words have a manifold 
mean in jf. » 

TLo face of creation tcstilics that there has been a 
Creator ; ])iit at once arises the question, IIow and when 
(lid ho make lieavcn and earth ? They could not have 
been made in heaven and cartli, the world could not 
have been made in the world, nor could they have been 
made when there was nothing to make them of.’^ The 
solution of this fundamental inquiry St. Augustine 
linds in saying, Thou spakest, and they were made.’’ 

Jhit the difficultv docs not eml here. St. Augustine 
goes on to remark that the syllal)lcs thus uttered by 
God came forth in succession, and there must have been 
some created thing to ejq^ress the words. This created 
thing must, theivfore, have existed before heaven and 
*Ciirth, 4»nd yet there could have been no cor]x>r(ial thing 
before heaven and eirth. It must have been a creature, 
because the words passed away and came to an end ; 



CRITICISM ON ST. AUGUSTINE. 


sd 

but we know that “ the word of tlie Lord endurcth 
forever.” 

jUforeover, it is plain that the words thus spoken 
could* not have been spoken successively, but simulta- 
neously, ^Ise there would have been time and change — 
succession in its nature implying time ; whereas there 
warf then nothing but eternity and- immortality. God 
knows and says eteraally what takes place in time. 

»St. Augustine then defines, not without much mys- 
ticism, what is meant by the opening words of Genesis : 
“ In the beginning.” He is guided to his conclusion by 
another scriptural passage: “IIow wonderful are thy 
works, O Lord ! in wisdom hast thou made them all.” 
Tliis “wisdom” is “tlic beginning,” and in that begin- 
ning the Ix>rd created the heaven and the earth. 

“ Ilut,” he adds, “ some one may ask, ‘ What was God 
doing before he made tlie heaven and the earth '{ for, if 
at any particular moment ho began to employ himself, 
fliat means time, not eternity. In eternity nothing 
transpires — the wliole is present.’” In answering this 
«juestion, he, cannot forbear one of those touches of 
rlietoric for which he was so celebrated : “ I will not 
answer this question by saying that he Wiis ])repjirii)g 
lu ll for priers into his mysteries. 1 say that, before 
t»od mady heaven and earth, ho dhl not make any tiling, 
for no creature could be made before any cVeaturc was 
made. Time itself is a creature, and heiico it could not 
iHissibly exist before creation. 

“ What, then, is time I The jiast is not, the future 
is not, the present — who can tell what it is, unless it bo 
tliat which has no duration between nonentities*? 
Theixs is no such thing as ‘a long time,’ or ‘a s^iort 
time,’ for there arc no such tilings as the past and tho 
future. They Inyve no exi.^tence,^ except in the soul.” 



60 


CRITICISM ON ST. AUGUSTINE. 


The style in which St. Augustine conveyed his ideas 
IS that of a rhapsodical conversation with God. ^ His 
works arc an incoherent dream. That the reader may 
appreciate this remark, I might copy almost at raflidoin 
any of his paragraphs. The following is firom the 
twelfth book : 

“ Thi^ then, is what 1 conceive, O my God, when I 
hear thy Scripture saying. In the beginning God made 
heaven and earth : and the earth was invisible and witli- 
out form, and darkness was upon the deep, and not men- 
tioning what day thou createdst them ; this is what I con- 
ceive, that because of the heaven of heavens — that in- 
tellectual lieaven, whose intelligences know all at once, 
not in part, not darkly, not through a glass, but as a 
whole, in manifestation, face to face ; not this thing 
now, and that thing anon ; but (as I said) know all at 
once, without any succession of times; and because of 
the earth, invisible and without form, without any suc- 
cession of times, which succession presents ‘ this thing 
now, that thing anon because, where there is no fonn, 
there is no distinction of things ; it is, then, on account 
of these two, a primitive fonned, and a primitive fonn* 
less ; the one, heaven, but the heaven of heavens ; tho 
other, earth, but the earth movable and without form; 
because of these two do I conceive, did thy .Scripture 
say without mention of <lays, In the beginning Gwl 
created the heaven and the earth. For, forthwith it 
subjoined what earth it spake of ; and also in that the 
linnament is recorded to be created the second day, and 
called heaven, it conveys to us of which heaven he be- 
fbi*e spake, \without mention of days. 

^‘AV'ondrous depth of thy words! whose surface, 
iKjhold! is before us, inviting to little ones; yet are 
they a wondrous depth, O my God, a •wondrous depth! 



CRITICISM ON ST. AUGUSTINE. 


61 


It is awful to look therein ; an awfulness of honor, and 
a trembling of love. The enemies thereof I hate ve- 
hemently ; 0 that thou wouldst slay them with thy 
two-edged sword, that they might no longer be enemies 
to it : so do I love to have them slain unto them- 

selves, that they may live unto thee.” 

As an example of the hermeneutical manner in 
which St. Augustine unfolded the concealeil facts of 
the Scriptures, I may cite the following from the thir- 
teenth book of the Confessions ; ” his object is to show 
that the doctrine of the Trinity is contained in the 
Mosaic narrative of the creation : 

“ Lo, now the Trinity appears unto me in a glass 
darkly, which is thou my God, because thou, O Fatlicr, 
in him who is the beginning of our wisdom, which is 
thy wisdom, born of thyself, equal unto thee and co- 
eternal, that is, in thy Son, createdst heaven and earth. 
.Much now have we wiid of the heaven of heavens, and 
of the earth invisible and without form, and of tlie dark- 
>01110 deep, in reference to the wandering instability of 
its spiritual deformity, unless it had been converted 
unto him, from whom it had its then degree of life, 
and by his enlightening became a beauteous life, and 
the heaven of that heaven, whi<'li was afterward set be- 
tween w^ter and water. An<l under the lyiine of God, 
I now held the Father, who made tliese things; and 
under the name of the beginning, the Son, in whom ho 
made these things; and believing, as I did, my God as 
the Trinity, I searched furtlier in his holy words, and 
lo! thy Spirit moved upon the wateys. Ilehold the 
Trinity, my God ! — Father, ami Son, and Holy Ghost, 
Creator of all creation.” 

That I might convey to my reader a just impres- 
sion of the chiracter of St. Augustine’s philosophical 



62 


CBITICISM ON ST. AUGUSTINE. 


writings, I have, in the two quotations here giveh, sub- 
stituted for my own translation that of the EeV. Dr. 
Pnsey, as contained in Vol. I. of the “ Library of Fa- 
thers of the Holy Catholic Church,” published at Ox- 
ford, 1840. 

Considering the .eminent authority which has l»en 
attributed to the writings of St. Augustine by the re- 
ligious world for nearly fifteen centuries, it is proiwr 
to speak of them with respect. And indeed it is not 
necessary to do otherwise. The paragraphs here quoted 
criticise themselves. No one did more than this Father 
to bring science and religion into antagonism ; it was 
mainly he who diverted the Bible from its true office — 
a guide to piwity of life — and placed it in the perilous 
position of being the arbiter of human knowledge, an 
audacious tyranny over the mind of man. The e.\- 
amplo once set, there was no want of followera ; the 
works of the great Greek philosophers were stigmatized 
as profane ; the transcendently glorious achievements ot 
the Museum of Alexandria were hidden from sight by 
a cloud of ignorance, mysticism, and unintelligible jar- 
gon, out of which there too often flashed the destroying 
lightnings of ecclesiastical vengeance. 

A divinorevelation of science admits of no improve- 
ment, no change, no advance. It <liscouragos as need- 
less, and indeed as presumptuous, all new discoveiy, 
considering it as an unlawful prying into things which 
it was the intention of God to conceal. 

, What, then, MS that* sacred, that revealed science, de- 
clared by the Fathers to be the sum of all knowledge! 

It likened all phenomena, natural and spiritual, to 
human acts. It saw in the Almighty, the Eternal, only 
a gigantic man. 



IBB PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY. (58 

As to the earth, it affirmed that it is a flat surface, 
over which the shy is spread like a dome, or, as St. 
Augustine tells us, is stretched like a skin. In this tlio 
sun* and moon and stars move, so that they may give 
light hy day and by night to man. The earth w'as 
made of matter created by God out of nothing, and, 
with all the tribes of animals and plants inhabiting it, 
was finished in six days. Above the sky or firmament 
is heaven ; in the dark and fiery space beneath tlie earth 
is hell. The earth is the central and most important 
body of the univei-se, all other things being intended 
for and subservdent to it. 

As to man, he was made out of the dust of the 
earth. At first ho was alone, but subsequently woman 
was formed from one of his ribs, lie is the greatest 
and choicest of the works of God. lie was placed in a 
I>aradise near the banks of the Euphrates, and was very 
wise and veiy pure ; but, having tasted of the forbidilcn 
finiit, and thereby broken the commandment given to 
him, he was condemned to labor and to death. 

The descendants of the first man, undeterred by his 
punishment, pursued such a career of wickedness that 
it became necessary to destroy them. A deluge, there- 
fore, flooded the face of the earth, and rose over the 
tops of the mountains. Having accomplished its pur- 
pose, the M'ater was dried up by a wind. 

From this catastrophe jS'oah and his three sons, with 
their wives, were saved in an ark. Of these sons, Sbem 
remained in Asia and rcpcopled it. Ham peopled Af- 
rica; Japhet, Europe. As the ‘Fathers were not ac- 
quainted w'ith the existence of Americi^ they did not 
provide an ancestor fo|; its people. 

Let ns listen to what some of these authorities say 
in support of their assertions. •Thus Lactantins, refer- 



64 


TUE PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY. 


ring to the heretical doctrine of the globular foiyn of 
the earth, remarks ; “ Is it possible that men can he so 
absurd as to believe that the crops and the trees on the 
other side of the earth hang downward, and that hien 
have their feet higher than their heads ? If you ask 
them how they defend these monstrosities, how things 
do not falU away from the earth on that side, they re- 
ply that the nature of things is such that heavy bodies 
tend toward the centre, like the spokes of a wheel, wliile 
light bodies, as clouds, smoke, fire, tend from the centre 
to the heavens on all side.'^. Xow, I am really at a lo.*s 
what to say of those who, when they have once gone 
wrong, steadily pei-scvere in their folly, and defend one 
absurd opinion by another.” On the question of the 
antipodes, St. Augustine asserts that “ it is impossible 
there should be inhabitants on the opposite side of the 
earth, since no such race is recorded by Scripture among 
the descendants of Adam.” Perhaps, however, the most 
unanswerable argument against the sphericity of the 
earth was this, that “ in the day of judgment, men on 
the other side of a globe could not see the Lord de- 
scending through the air.” 

It is unnecessary for me to say any thing respect- 
ing the introduction of death into the world, the con- 
tinual interv’entions of spiritual agencies in the course 
of events, the ollices uf angels and devils, the expected 
cotdlagration of the earth, the tower of Pabel, the con 
fusion of tongues, the dispersion of mankind, the inter- 
jrrotation of natural phenomena, as eclipses, the rain- 
bow, etc. Above all, I abstain from commenting on 
tUo Patristic inceptions of the Almighty; they are too 
antlwopomorphic, and wanting in sublimity. 

Perhaps, however, I may quSte from Cosmas Indi- 
coplcustes the views that were entertained in the sixth 



TJIE rATRISTIC nriLOSOPIIY. 


05 


century. He wrote a work entitled “ Christian Topog- 
raphy,” the chief intent of which was to confute the 
hereticaf opinion of the globular fonn of the earth, and 
the pagan assertion that there is a temperate zone on 
the soifthem side of the torrid. Ho aflSrms tliat, ac- 
cording to the true orthodox system of geography, the 
earth is a quadrangular plane, extending four hundred 
days’ journey east and west, and exactly half as much 
north and south ; that it is inclosed by mountains, 
on which the sky rests; that one on the north side, 
linger than the others, by intercepting the rays of the 
sun, produces night ; and that the plane of the earth is 
not set exactly horizontally, but with a little inclination 
from the noith : hence the Euphrates, Tigris, and other 
rivers, running southward, are rapid; but the Nile, 
having to run up-hill, has necessarily a very slow 
current. 

The Venerable J3cde, writing in the seventh century, 
tells us that ‘‘ the creation was accomplished in six days, 
and that the earth is its centre and its primary object, 
llic heaven is of a fiery and subtile nature, round, and 
e^juidistant in every part, as a canopy from the centre 
of the earth. It turns round every day with ineiTable 
rapidity, only moderated by the resistance of the seven 
planets, three above the sxiii — Saturn, Jujvitcr, Mars— 
then the sun ; three below' — Venus, Mercury, the moon. 
The stars go round in their fixed courses, the northern 
perform the shortest circle. The highest heaven has 
^ts proper limit; it contains the angelic virtues wdio do- 
^nd upon earth, assume ether&il bodies, perform liu- 
^an functions, and return. The heaved is temper^ 
^vith glacial waters, lo^ it should be set on fire. •Tho 
Juferior heaven is called the finnament, because it sep^ 
arates the supcilncumbent xvateVs from tho waters bo- 

V 



66 


THE PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY. 


low. Tlic firmamental waters are lower than the spirit- 
ual heaven, higher than all corporeal beings, reserved, 
some say, for a second deluge ; othei-s, more truly, to 
temper the fire of the fixed stors.” 

Was it for this preposterous scheme — this product 
of ignorance and audacity — that the works of the Greek 
philosophcvs were to bo given up ? It was none too 
soon that the great critics who appeared at the Reforma- 
tion, by comparing the works of these writers with one 
another, brought them to their proper level, and taught 
us to look upon them all with contempt. 

Of this presumptuous system, the strangest part was 
its logic, the nature of its proofs. It relied upon mira- 
(*le-<ivj(leiic*e. A fact was supposed to be demonstrated 
by an astounding illustration of something else! An 
Arabian writer, referring to this, says: ‘^Jf a conjurer 
should say to me, ‘ Tlirce are more than ten, and in proof 
of it T will eliange this stick into a serpent,^ I might be 
surprised at liis legerdemain, but I certainly should not 
adiiiit his assertion,” Yet, for more than a thousand 
years, sucli was the accepted logic, and all over Europe 
]>ropoaitions equally absurd were accepted on equally 
■ ridiculous proof. 

Since the i>arty that liad become dominant in the 
empire could^not furnish works capable of intellectual 
competition with those of the great pagan authors, and 
since it was impossible for it to accept a position of in- 
feriority^, there arose a political necessity for the dis- 
couragement, and even persecnition, of profane learn- 
ing. The persepution of the Platonists under Valen- 
tinian was due to that necessity. They were accused 
of magic, and many of them were put to death. The 
profession of philosophy had become dangerous — it was 
a state crime. In its stead there arose » passion for the 



THE PATRISTIC PHILOSOPHY. 


67 


marvelous, a spirit of superstition. Egypt e.\changed 
the great men, who had made her Museum immortal, 
for bands of solitary monks and sequestered virjrins. 
with which she was overrun. 



CHAPTER III. 


CONFLICT RESPECTINO THE DOCTRINE OF THE UNITY OF 
GOD. — THE FIRST OB SOUTHERN REFORMATION. 

TKt Egypiian% inaUt on the introduction of the worahip of the Virgin 
Mar They are restated by Ncator, the Patriarch of Constantinople, 
hut eventually, through their infuence with the emperor, cause Kcator'a 
exile and the dispersion of his followers. 

Prelude to the Southern Jiefomuition.-—7'he Persian attack! its moral 
effects. 

The Arabian Reformation. — Mohammed is brought in contact with the. 
Ncatorians,'~-Ile adopts and extends their principles, rejecting the 
worship of the Virgin, the doctrine of the Trinity, and every thing in 
opposition to the unity of (Jod. — lie extinguishes idolatrtf in Arabia, 
by force, and prepares to make war on the Roman Kmpirc. — Ilis sue- 
cessors conquer Syria, Egypt, xisia Minor, Xorth Afnca, Spain, and 
invade France. 

As the of this conflict, the doctrine of the unity of Ood was estab- 
lished in the greater part of the Roman Kmpire.-^The cultivation of 
science was restored, and Christendom lost many of her most illustrious 
capitals, as Alexandria, Carthage, and, above all, Jerusalem. 

The policy of tlie Byzantine court had given to 
primitive Christianity a paganized form, which it had 
spread over all the idolatrous populations constituting 
tlm empire. Tltere had been an amalgamation of the 
two tjarties. Christianity had modified paganism, pagan- 
ism had mollified Christianity. The limits of this adul- 
tei-ateil religion were the confines of the Roman Empire. 
With this great exfension there had come to the 



ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES. 


69 


Christian party political influence and wealth. No in- 
significant portion of the vast public revenues found 
their way into the treasuries of the Church. As under 
such circumstances must ever be the case, there w'ere 
many eompetitors for tlie spoils — men who, under the 
niask of zeal for the predominant faith, sought only the 
enjoyment of its emoluments. 

Under the early emperors, conquest had reached its 
culmination ; the empire was completed ; there remained 
no adequate objects for military life ; the days of war- 
]XH:ulation, and the plundering of provinces, were over. 
J-'or the ambitious, however, another path was open; 
other objects preseuteil. A successful career in the 
Church led to results not unworthy of conqtarison M ith 
those that in former days had been attained by a suc- 
cessful career in the anny. 

The ecclesiastical, and indeed, it nnvy be said, much 
of the political history of that time, turns on the strug- 
gles of the bishops of the throe great metropolitan citief 
— Constantinople, Alexandria, Home — for supremacy ; 
l.’onstantinople based her claims on the fact that slit 
was the cxi>ting imperial city ; Alexandria pointed to 
her commercial and literary jtosition; Home, to her 
souvenirs. Hut the I’atriarcli of Constant inophriabored 
under Ahe disadvantage that he was too closely under 
the eye, and, as he found to his i-ost, t<jo o/ten under the 
hand, of the emperor. Uistance gave security to the 
episcopates of Alexandria and Home. 

licligious disputations in the East have generally 
turned on diversities of opinion respecting the nature 
and attributes of God; in the West, on tJic relations'and 
life of man. This peculiarity has licen strikingly, mani- 
fested in the transfonnations that Christianity has under- 
gone in ^Vsia*Bnd Europe respectively. Accordingly, 



70 


ECCLESIASTICAL DISPUTES. 


at the time of which we are speaking, all tlxe Eastern 
provinces of the Roman Empire exhibited an intellect- 
ual anarchy. There were fierce quarrels respecting tlie 
Trinity, the essence of God, the position of the Son, tlie 
nature of the Holy Spirit, the influences of tlie^Virgin 
Mary. The triumphant clamor first of one then ,of 
another seat was confirmed, sometimes by miracle-proof, 
sometimes by bloodshed. No attempt was cv^er made 
to submit the rival opinions to logical examination. 
All parties, however, agreed in this, that the imposture 
of the old classical pagjin forms of faith was demon- 
strated by the facility with wliich they had been over- 
thrown. The triumphant ecclesiastics proclaimed that 
the images of the gods had failed to defend themselves 
when the time of trial came. 

Polytheistic ideas have always been held in repute 
by the southern European races, the Semitic have main- 
tained the unity of God. Perhaps this is duo to the fa(*t, 
as a recent author has suggested, that a diversitied land- 
scape of mountains and valleys, islands, and rivers, and 
gulfs, predisposes man to a belief in a multitude of 
divinities. A vast sjmdy desert, the illimitalde ocean, 
iinpresse.s him with an idea of the onene.-s of God. 

Political reasons had led the emp(MH)rs to look with 
favor on thQ admixture of diristianity and jarganism, 
and doubtless by this means the bitterness df the rivalry 
between those antagonists was somewhat abated. The 
heaven of the popular, the fashionable Clirislianity 
was the old Olympus, from whieh the venerable Greek 
divinities had b^cii reifi<»ved. There, on a g:*eat white 
throne, sat God the Father, on hi.s right the Son, and 
then •the blessed Virgin, clatl in a golden ro!)o, and 
“covei'od with various female adornments;” on the 
'oft sat God the Uoljr Ghost. Surtounding these 



EGYPTIAN DOCTRINES. 


71 


tliroues were hosts of angels with their liiirps. The 
vast expanse beyond was tilled with tables, seated at 
which the happy spirits of the just enjoyed a perpetual 
banquet. 

If, Satisfied with this picture of himpiness, illiterate 
persons never inquired how the details of such a heaven 
were carried out, or how much pleasure thqj*e could bo 
in the ennui of such an eternally unchanging, uninov- 
ing scene, it was not so with the intelligent. As we are 
soon to see, there were among the higher ecclesiastics 
those \vho rejected wdth sentiments of horror these 
carnal, these materialistic conce})tions, and raised their 
protesting voices in vindication of the attributes of the 
Omnipresent, the Almighty Ood. 

in the paganization of religion, now in all directions 
taking plac(‘, it became the interest of every bishoj) to 
procure an adoption of the ideas wliieli, time out of 
mind, had been eiirrent in the commnnily under his 
charg(». The Kgvptians had already thus forced on tlie 
Church their ])eculiar Trinitarian views; and now tliey 
were resolved that, under the form of the adoration of 
the Virgin Mary, the w’orship of Isis sliouhl he restored. ' 

It so liappened that ]Scstor, the Hish<»p <if/.^nlio(*h, 
who eiKertaincd the ])hiloM>pliical views of Thecnlore 

Mo])suestia, liad been called by the Kmpenir Theo- 
dosius tlie Younger to the KpiM*opate of ( onsluntinopIcJ 
(a. I). 427). Nestor rejected the base jiopiahir aiithro- 
iHimuqdiisin, looking upon it as little better than blas- 
jdiemous, and pictured to himself an jiwful eternal Di- 
vinity, who per^'aded the univerK*, and had none of \ho 
aspects or attributes of man. Nestor wiis deeply imbued 
with the doctrines of Aristotle, and attempted to co- 
ordinate them •with what he considered to ho orthodox 



THE NESTORIANS. 


72 

Clmstian tenets. Between him and Cyril, the Bishop 
or Patriarch of Alexandria, a quarrel accordingly arose. 
Cyril represented the paganizing, Isestor the philoso- 
phizing party of the Church. This was that Cyril Vho 
had murdered Hypatia. Cyril was determined that the 
worship of the Virgin as the Mother of God should be 
recognized^ Nestor was detemiined that it should not. 
In a sennon delivered in the metropolitan church at 
Constat\tinople, he vindicated the attributes of the Eter- 
nal, the Almighty God. “ And can this God have a 
mother ? ” he exclaimed. In other sermons and writ- 
ings, he set forth with more precision his ideas that 
the Virgin should he considered not as the Mother of 
(lod, but as the mother of the human portion of Christ, 
that portion being as essentially distinct from the divine 
ns is a temple from its contained deity. 

Instigated by the monks of Ale.xandria, the monks 
of (hmstantinojde took up arms in behalf of “the 
Mother of God.” The quarrel rose to such a jiitch that 
the emperor was constrained to summon a council to 
meet at K[)hesus. In the mean time Cyril lia<l given a 
bribe of many pounds of gold to the chief eunuch of 
the imperial court, and ha<l thereby obtained the inllu- 
«‘uco*of \the emperor's sister. “The holy virgin of the, 
court of he^iven thus found an ally of her o\jn sex in 
the holy virgin of the emperor's court.” Cyril hastenetl 
to the council, attended by a mob of men and women 
of the baser sort, lie at once assumed the presidency, 
and in the midst of a tnmnit hatl the emperor's rescript 
rea<l before th^ Syrimi bishops could arrive. A single 
day served t(r complete his triumph. All offers of ac- 
commodation on the part of Nestor were refusal, his 
explanations were not read, he was condemned unheard. 
On the arrival of the J^yrian ecclesiastics, a meeting of 



I'ERSECUTIOX AND DEATH OF NESTOR. 


73 


protest was held by them. A riot, with much blood- 
shed, ensued in the cathedral of St. John. Xestor was 
abandoned by the court, and eventually exiled to an 
E^ptian oasis, llis persecutors tormented him as 
long as he lived, by every means in their power, and at 
his death gave out that his blasphemous tongue had 
been devoured by worms, and thfit from the heats of an 
Egyptian desert he had escaped only into the hotter 
torments of hell ! ” 

The overthrow and punishment of Xestor, however, 
by no means destroyed his opinions, lie and his fol- 
lowers, insisting on the jdain inference of the last verse 
of the first cluipter of St. ^latthew, together with the 
fifty-lifth and lifty-sixth verses of the thirteenth of the 
same gos})el, could never ho, brought to an acknowdedg- 
ment of the })crpetual virginity of the now (pieen of 
heaven. Their jdiilosophical tendencies wore soon indi- 
catetl In* their actions. While their leader Wiis tormented 
in an African oasis, many of them emigrated to the Ku- 
jdirates, and established the Chahlean ('Imrch. Under 
their auspices the. college of E(h>s:i was humded. From 
the College of Xi>il>is issued those doctors who sprea<l 
Nestors tenets through Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary^ 
('hina, Egyj)t. The Nestorians, of course, adf>]>re(l the 
philo.-^iphy of Aristotle, and translated the works of 
that great writer into Syriac and Fersian. They alw) 
made similar translations of later works, such as those 
of Pliny. In connection with the Jews they founded 
the mc^iical college of Djomlesahour. Their mission- 
aries disseminated the Nestoriaii form of (’hristianity to 
such an extent over Asia, that it.s worsliipers eventually 
outnumbered all the Euro|>ean (diristians of thg fireek^ 
and Koman Churches combined. It may be i)articularly 
remarked thai in Arabia they^had a bishop. 



THE PERSIAN CAMPAIGN. 


U 


The dissensions between Constantinople and Alex- 
andria had thus filled all Western Asia with sectaries, 
ferocious in their contests with each other, and many 
of them burning with hatred against the imperial power, 
for the persecutions it had inflicted on them. •A reli- 
gious revolution, the consequences of which are felt ^ 
our own tijnes, was the result. It affected the whole 
world. 

We shall gain a clear view of this great event, if wo 
consider separately the two acts into which it may be 
decomposed : 1. The temporary overthrow of Asiatic 
Christianity by the Persians ; 2. The decisive and final 
refonnation under the Arabians. 

1. It happened (a. d. 590) that, by one of those rev- 
olutions so frequent in Oriental courts, Chosroes, the 
lawful lieir to the Persian throne, was compelled to seek 
refuge in the Pyzaiitine Empire, and implore the aid of 
the Emperor Maurice. That aid was cheerfully given. 
A brief and successful campaign restored Chosroes to 
the throne of liis ancestors. 

Put the glories of this generous campaign could not 
preserve Maurice himself. A mutiny broke out in the 
iloiqan anny, lieaded by Phocas, a centurion. The 
statues di the emperor were overthrown. The Patriarch 
of Constantinople, having declared that ho had assured 
himself of tlie orthodoxy of Pliocaa, consecrated him 
emperor. The unfortunate llklaurico was dragged from 
a sanctuary, in which ho had sought refuge; his five 
sons were beheaded before his eyes, and then he was 
put to death. IHs enrpress was inveigled from the 
chiiVch of St, Sophia, tortured, and with her three young 
" daughters beheaded. Tlie adherents of the massacred 
family were pursued with ferocious vindictiveness; of 
some the eyes were blinded, of others the tongues were 



TUE EXPEDITION OF HERACLIDS. 


75 


tom.ont, or the feet and hands cut off, some were wliip- 
ped to death, others were burnt. 

When the nows reached Rome, Pope Gregory re- 
ceived it with exultation, praying that the hands of 
Phoca^ might be strengthened against all his enemies. 

an equivalent for this subserviency, he was greeted 
with the title of “ Universal Bishop.” The cause of his 
action, as well as of that of the Patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, was doubtless the fiict that Maurice was suspected 
of Magian tendencies, into w’hich he had been lured by 
the Persians. The mob of Constantinople had hooted 
after him in the streets, branding him as a M.'ircionitc, 
a sect which believed in the Magian doctrine of two 
conflicting principles. 

AVith very different sentiments Chosrocs heard of 
the murder of his frieinl. Phocas had sent him the 
heads of Afaurice and his sons. The Persian king 
turned from the ghastly spechicle with horror, and at 
once made ready to avenge the wrongs of his benefactor 
l>y w’ar. 

The Exarch of Africa, Ilcraelius, one of the chief 
olficera of the sbite, also received the shocking tidings 
with indignation, llew'as determined that tliejippev' 
rial purjde should not be usurped by an obwyre centu- 
rion of 4lisgu8ting aspect. “ The person of tnis Phocas 
was diminutive and defonned ; the closeness of his 
shaggy eyebrow's, his red hair, his Ixjardless chin, were' 
in keeping with his cheek, disfigured and discolored by 
a formidable scar. Ignorant of letters, of laws, and even 
of arms, he indulged in an am]de privilege of lust and 
drunkenness.” At first Ilcraelius rcfinSed tribute and 
obedience to him ; then, admonished by age and infirmi- 
ties, ho committed the dangerous enterprise of resist- 
ance to his son of the same nam& A prosperous voyage 



76 


INVASION OP CHOSROES. 


from Carthage soon brought the younger Herac^jius in 
front of Constantinople. The inconstant clergy, sepate, 
and people of the city joined him, the usurper wjis 
seized in his palace and beheaded. 

But the revolution that liad taken place in Constan- 
tinople did not arrest the movements of the Persian 
king. IIi^ Magian priests liad warned him to act inde- 
pendently of the Greeks, whose superstition, they de- 
clared, was devoid of all truth and justice. Chosroes, 
therefore, crossed the Euphrates ; his army was received 
with transport by tlie Syrian sectaries, insurrections in 
his favor everywliere breaking out. In succession, 
Antioch, Ciesarca, Damascus fell ; Jerusalem itself was 
taken by storm ; the sepulchre of (Jlirist, the churches 
of Constantine and of Helena were given to the flames; 
the Savior’s cross was sent as a trophy to Persia ; the 
chunbes were rilled of their riches ; the sacred relics, 
collected by superstition, were dispersed. Egypt was in- 
vaded, conquered, and annexed to the Persian Empire; 
the I^itriarch of Alexandria esciiped by flight to (y- 
prus ; the African coast to Tripoli was seized. On the 
north, Asia Elinor was subdued, and for ten years tin* 
‘l^ersian forces encamped on the shores of the Bosporus, 
in fronXof Constantinople. 

In his qxtremity lleraclius begged for police. ‘‘ I 
will never give peace to the Emperor of Rome,'’ rej)lie<l 
the proud Pei*sian, ‘‘ till he has abjured his crucified 
God, and embraced the worship of the sun.” After a 
long delay terms were, however, secured, and the Roman 
Empire was ranjomed at the ]>rice of ‘‘ a thousiuid talents 
of gold, a thousand talents of silver, a thousand silk 
robes, a thousiuul horses, and a thousand virgins.” 

But lleraclius submitted only for a moment, lie 
found mci^ns not only to restore his affairs but to retali- 



INVASION OF CHOSROES. 


77 


ate Oft the Persian Empire. The operations by which 
lie achieved this result were worthy of the most brill- 
iant days of Koine. 

Tliough her military renown was thus recovered, 
though her territory was regained, there was something 
thi^t the Koman Empire had irrecoverably lost. Keli- 
gious faith could never be restored. In f^ce of the 
world Magiauism had insulted (Christianity, by profan- 
ing her most sacred places — Bethlehem, Getliscmanc, 
( alvarj- — by burning the sepulchre of Christ, by rilling 
and destroying the churches, by scattering to the wimls 
jiriceless relics, by carrying off, with shouts of laughter, 
the cross. 

Miracles had once abounded in Syria, in Egypt, in 
.Asia Minor; there was not a church wliicli had not its 
long catalogue of them. Very often they were displayeil 
on unimportant occasions and in insignilicant cases. In 
this su])rcme moment, when such aid was most urgently 
dcniandcd, not a miracle was worked. 

Amazement tilled the (’hristian populations of the 
Ka^t when they witnessed these Persian sacrileg(“S jier- 
|>ctratc<l with imjmnity. The heavens should have 
rolled asunder, the earth should have opened 
ahysscs, the swonl of the Almighty should ha\^fla8hed 
in the sky, the fate of Sennacherib slionhUtave been 
re|)cated. But it was not so. Jn the land of miracles, 
amazement was followed by consternation — constema-' 
tion died out in ilisbelief. 

2. But, dreadful as it was, the Persian con(|Ucst was 
hut a prelude to the great event, the, story of which 
we have now to relate — the Southern Revolt against 
( hristianity. Its issue was the loss of nine-tenths of 
her geographical possessions — .Asia, Africa, and part of 
I'.urojie. 



78 


MOnAMMED. 


In the summer of 581 of the Cliristian era, there 
came to Bozrah, a town on the confines of Syria, south of 
Damascus, a caravan of camels. It was from Mecca, 
and was laden with the costly products of South Arabia 
— Arabia the Happy. The conductor of the caravan, 
one AbouTaleb, and his nephew, a lad of twelve yeare, 
were hospitably received and entertained at the Nesto- 
rian convent of the town. 

The monks of this convent soon found that their 
yonnf' visitor, Ilalibi or Mohammed, was tlie nephew 
of tlie {guardian of the Caalia, the sacu-ed temple of the 
Arabs. One of lliem, by name Baliira, spared no 
])ains to secaire liis conversion fi'om the idolatry in 
wliich he liad l>een brouf^lit up. He found the boy not 
only precociou.-ly intelligent, but eagerly desirous of 
information, es[)e(*ially on matters relating to religion. 

In Mohammed's own country the chief object of 
IMcccan worship was a bla(*k meteoric stone, kept in the 
(^aaba, with three hundred and sixty subordinate idols, 
representing tlie days of the year, as the year was then 
counted. 

At this time, as we have seen, tlie (’hristian (,’hurch, 
v^hvpngh the ambition and wickedness of its clergy, had 
becir*bi\night into a condition of anarchy. Councils 
had been on various pretenses, while the r^al mo- 
tives were concealed. Too often they were scenes of 
violence, bribery, corruption. In the West, such were 
the temptations of riche.-, luxury, and power, presented 
by the episcopates, that the election of a bishop was 
often disgraced by frightful murders. In the East, in 
eoifsecpienco of the jxdicy of the court of Constanti- 
noplcf the Church had been torn in pieces by contentions 
and schisms. Among a countless host of disputants 
may bo mentioned Ari^ns, Basilidiaus,« Carpocratiane, 



MOHAMilED. 


70 

Collyridians, Eutychians, Gnostics, Jacobites, Marcion- 
itcs,. Marionites, Nestorians, Sabellians, Vnlentiiuans. 
( >f these, the Marionites rogirnled the Trinity as consist- 
in^( hf God the Father, God the Son, and God tlie Vir- 
^,'in Ma*y ; the Collyridians worshiped the Virgin as a 
divinity, offering her sacrilices of cakes; the Xestorians, 
as* we liave seen, denied that God had ‘‘a mother.” 
They i)rided themselves on being tlie inheritors, the 
possessors of the science of old Greece. 

13ut, thongh they were irreconcilable in raattm-s of 
faith, there was one ])oint in which all these sects agreed 
— ferocious hatred and persecution of each other. Ara- 
bia, an unconquered land of liberty, stretching from tho 
Indian Ocean to the Desert of Syria, gave them all, as 
tlie tide of fortune .-\icccssi vely turned, a refuge. It had 
I.ecn so from the (dd times. Thitlier, after the lioman 
comjuest of Falestino, vast numbers of dews escaped; 
thither, immediately afivr his conversion, St. I’aul tells 
the (lalatians that Im retired. 'I'lu* deserts were now 
lilleil witli Christian anchorites, and among the chief 
tribes of the .Arabs many jtroselytes Inul been niadt*. 
Here and there churches liad been built. 'I'he Clirisfian 
I>rinces of Abyssinia, who were Mestorians, held tjuk- 
southem province of Arabia — Yemen — in ])ossi^sion. 

By the monk Haliira, in the convent at jj^rah, Mo- 
haminetl was taught the tenets of the -Nestorians; from 
them the young Arab learned the story of their perse-' 
••utions. It was these interviews whicli engendered in 
him a hatred of the idolatrous practices of tho Eastern 
Church, and indeed of all idolatvy; that tAught him, in 
his wonderful career, never to speak of Josim as the S5n 
of God, but always as “Jesus, tho smi of Mary.” .His 
untutored but active mind couhl not fail to be profound- 
ly impressed not only with the religious lujt also with 



80 


MOHAMMED. 


the philosophical ideas of his instructors, who gloried ia 
being the living representatives of Aristotelian science. 
His subsequent career shows how completely their reli- 
gious thoughts had taken possession of him, and repeated 
acts manifest his affectionate regard for thenfl His 
own life was devoted to the expansion and extension 
of their theological doctrine, and, that once effectually 
established, his successors energetically adopted and dif- 
fused their scientific, their Aristotelian opinions. 

As Mohammed grew to manhood, he made other 
expeditions to Syria. Perhaps, wc may suppose, that 
on these occasions the convent and its hospitable in- 
mates were not forgotten. He had a mysterious rev- 
erence for that country. A wealthy Meccan widow, 
Chadizah, had intnistcd him with the care of her Syrian 
trade. She was channed with his capacity and fidelity, 
and (since he is said to have been characterized by the 
possession of singular manly beauty and a most courte- 
ous demeanor) charmed with his person. The female 
heart in all ages and countries is the wimc. She caused 
a slave to intimate to him what was passing in her 
mind, and, for the remaining twenty-four years of her 
Sifo^J^ohammed was her faithful husband. In a land 
of poly^my, he never insulted her by the presence of 
A rival. Many years subsequently, in the heigli^; of his 
I)ower, Ayesha, who was one of the most beautiful 
women in Arabia, said to him : ‘‘ Was she not old ? Did 
not God give you in me a better wife in her place?’’ 

No, by God ! ” exclaimed Mohammed, and with a burst 
of honest gratitqde, “there never can be a better. She 
believed in me'when men despised me, she relieved me 
when* I was poor and j>ersccutcd by the world.” 

Ilis marriage with Chadizah placed him in circuim 
stances of ease, and ga^ him an opportunity of indnb 



HOHAHMED. 


81 


^iijg his inclination to religions meditation. It so liaj)- 
j)ened tliat her cousin Waraka, who was a Jew, had 
tiinifd Christian. lie was tlic first to translate the 
liible into Arabic. P>y his conversation Mohammed’s 
iletestatfon of idolatry was confirmed. 

•After the example of the Christian anchorites in 
their hermitages in the desert, Mohammed* retired to 
a grotto in Mount Ilera, a few miles from IMecca, giving 
himself up to meditation and prayer. In this seclusion, 
t‘4»ntemplating the awful attributes of the Omnipotent 
and Eternal Cod, lie addressed to his conscience the 
solemn inquiry, whether he could adopt the dogmas 
then held in Ahiatic Christendom respecting the Trin- 
ity, the sonship of Jesus as begotten by the Almighty, 
tlie character of Mary as at once a virgin, a mother, and 
the queen of heaven, without incurring the guilt and 
the j)eril of blasphemy. 

Ily his solitary meditations in the grotto Mohammed 
\Nas drawn to the conclusion that, through the cloud of 
dogmas and disputathms anjund him, one great truth 
might be discerned — the unity of God. Leaning agjiinst 
the steni of a palm-tree, he nnfohled his views on tliii^ 
Mihjeet to his neiglibors and friends, and annoiipeed frf 
them that he sliould dedicate his life the igcaching 
of that tfiith. Again and agaifi, in his scTitforis and in 
tlie Koran, he declared: ‘^lani nothing hut a public, 
J*reaclier. ... I pretich tlie oneness of (bxl.” Sucli was 
his own con(*ei>tion of his so-called apostleship. Hence- 
forth, to the day of his death, he wore on his finger a 
*H»al-ring on whicli wiis engrave<l, “ Moliainmcd, tlje 
messenger of God.” 

It is well known aiinmg physicians that prolonged 
ht-'ting and mental anxiety inevitably give rise to linl- 
lucination. Perhaps there never has i)oen any religious 

G 



82 


VICTORIES OF MOHAMMED. 


system introduced by self-denying, earnest men that did 
not ofier examples of supernatural temptations • and 
supernatural commands. Mysterious voices encouiaged 
the Arabian preacher to persist in his determination; 
shadows of strange forms passed before him. lie heard 
sounds in the air like those of a distant bell. In a 
nocturnal dream he was canied by Gabriel from Mecca 
to Jerusalem, and thence in succession through the six 
heavens. Into the seventh the angel feared to intrude, 
and Mohammed alone passed into the dread cloud that 
forever enshrouds the Almighty. “ A shiver thrilled 
his heart as he felt upon his shoulder the touch of the 
cold hand of God.” 

Ilis public ministrations met with much resistance, 
and little success at first. Expelled from Mecca by the 
upholders of the prevalent idolatry, he sought refuge in 
Medina, a town in which there were many Jews and 
Nestorians; the latter at once became proselytes to his 
faith, lie had already been compelled to send liis 
daughter and others of his disciples to Abyssinia, the 
king of which was a Ncstorian Christian. At the end 
hi six years he had made only fifteen hundred converts. 
Titlt in^hree little skirmishes, magnified in subsequent 
times uyt^o designation of the battles of lieder, of 
Ohud, ana\>f the Nations, Mohammed discovered that 
his most convincing argument was his sword. After- 
ward, with Oriental eloquence, he said, Paradise wdll 
be found in the sliadow of the crossing of swords,” By 
a series of well-conducted military operations, his ene- 
iifies wore completely overthrown. Arabian idolatry 
was absolutely extenninated ; the doctrine he proclaimed, 
that* there is but one God,” was universally adopted 
by his countrymen, and his own apostleship accept^ 

Let us pass over bis stormy life, add hear what be 



DEATH OF MOHAMMED. 


88 


gays when, on the pinnacle of eartlily power and glory, 
he was approaching its close. 

Steadfast in his declaration of the unity of God, ho 
departed from Medina on his last pilgrimage to Mec(*a, 
at the h^ad of one hundred and fourteen tliousand dev- 
otees, with camels decorated with garlands of flowers 
and fluttering streamers. When he approached the 
holy city, he uttered the solemn invocation : ‘^Ilere am 
I in thy service, O God ! Thou hast no companion. 
To thee alone belongeth worship. Thine alone is tho 
kingdom. There is none to share it with thee.” 

With his own hand he offered up tho camels in 
sacrifice. lie considered that primeval institution to 
l>e equally sacred as pmyer, and that no rtnison can Ih? 
alleged in support of the one which is not equally 
strong in support of the other. 

From the pulpit of the Caiaba he reiterated, “ O my 
hearers, I am only a man like yourselves.” They re- 
iiiembered that he had once .said to one who approached 
him with timid steps : Of what dost thou stand in awe ? 
I am no king. I am nothing but the son of an Arab 
woman, who ate flesh dried in tlie sun.” 

He returned to Medina to die. In his fa/cjwell 
to his congi’egation, he said: ‘Mi very thing ^Ijappeiis 
accordinjf to the will of God, and has its “^appointed 
time, which can ncitlier be hastened nor avf)ided. I re- 
turn to him who sent me, and my Ia.st command to you 
rs that ye love, honor, and uphold each otlier, that yo 
exhort each other to faith and constancy in l>eliof, and 
to tlie performance of pious deeds. My*l\fe lias beeu 
for your good, and so will be my death.” 

In his d}flng agony, his head was reclined on the lap 
of Ayesha. From time to time he had dipped his hand 
in a vase of watei', and moistened his face. At last he 



84 


DOCTRINES OF MODAMMED. 


ceased, and, gazing steadfastly upward, said, in broken 
accents : ‘‘ O God — forgive my sins — be it so. I come ” 

Shall we speak of this man with disrespect ? Ills 
precepts are, at this day, the religious guide of one- 
third of the human race. ^ 

In Mohammed, who had abeady broken away frpm 
the anciertt idolatrous worship of his native country, 
preparation had been made for the rejection of those 
tenets which his Nestorian teachers had communicated 
to him, inconsistent with reason and conscience. And, 
though, in the first pages of the Koran, he declares hi.^ 
belief in what was delivered to Moses and Jesus, and 
his reverence for them personally, his veneration for 
the Almighty is perpetually displayed. lie is horror- 
stricken at the doctrine of the divinity of Jesus, the 
worship of Mary as the mother of God, the adoration 
of images and paintings, in his eyes a base idolatry. 
He absolutely rejects the Trinity, of which he scein» 
to have entertained the idea that it could not be in- 
terpreted otherwise than as presenting three distinct 
Gods. 

His first and ruling idea was .simply religious refonn 
— to (\verthrow Arabian idolatry, and put an end to the* 
wild scc^a^inanism of Christianity. That he proposed t" 
set up a n^^v religion was a calumny invented against 
him in Constantinople, where he was looked upon with 
detestation, like that with wduch in after ages Luther 
was regarded in Itome. 

lint, though ho rejected with indigmition whatever 
might scem^ ib disparage the doctrine of the unity et 
God, he was not able to emancipate himself from an- 
thropomorphic conceptions. The Goel of the Koran i' 
altogether human, botli corporeally and mentally, if 
expressions may propriety bo used. Very soon. 



THE FIRST KIIALIF. 


85 


however, the followers of Mohammed divested them- 
t?elvcj,s of these base ideas and rose to nobler ones. 

The view here presented of the primitive character 
of Mohammedanism has lon«^ been adopted by many 
comi>etiRit authorities. Sir William Jones, following 
Ix)ckc, regards the main point in the divergence of Mo- 
hammedanism from Christianity to consist denying 
vehemently the character of our Savior as the Son, 
and his equality as God with the Father, of whose 
unity and attributes the Mohammedans entertain and 
express the most awful ideas.” Tliis opinion has been 
largely entertained in Italy. Dante regjirded Moham- 
med only as the author of a schism, and siiw in Ishim- 
\>m only an Arian sect. In England, Whately views it 
as a corruption of Christianity. It was an olTshoot of 
Nc>toriani.sm, and not until it liad overtlirown (ireek 
Christianity in many great battles, was spreading rapid- 
ly over Asia and Africa, and liad become intoxicated 
with its wonderful successes, did it r(‘i)udiate its jirimi- 
ti\e limited intentions, and ass(‘rt itself to be founded 
• 'll a separate and <listinct revelation. 

^Iohammed\s life had la'en almost entirely consumed 
in the conversion or comjue.st of Iiis native country.* 
Towanl its cl(>se, liowevcr, he felt himself strong enough 
to tlircatiMi the invasion of Syria and Persi;u lie had 
no provision for the ]>erpetuation of his own do- 
ndiiion, and hence it was not witlioiit a struggle that’ 
a hU(‘ee.ssor was apjiointed. At length Ahiihcker, the 
father of Ayesha, was selected. lie was proclaimed 
the first khalif, or successor of tiu? Prop!v*t. 

There is a very imjwtaiit difTcrenccMietwccn the 
•q»rcad of Mohammedanism and the spread of CliHsti- 
anity. The latter was never sufficiently strong to over- 
throw and cxtiq)atc idolatry in the llo»n'in Empire. Ai 



86 


THE MOHAMMEDAN HEAVEE. 


it, advai^ced) th^re .was an amalgamation, a union. TLc 
old forms of the one were vivified by the new spirit of 
the other, and that paganization to which reference has 
already been made was the result. 

But, in Arabia, Mohammed overthrew and jdisolute- 
ly annihilated the old idolatry. No trace of it is found 
in the doctrines preached by him and his successors. 
The black stone that had fallen from heaven — the me- 
teorite of the Caaba — and its encircling idols, passed 
totally out of view. The essential dogma of the new 
faith — There is but one God — spread without any 
adulteration. Military successes had, in a worldly sense, 
made the religion of the Koran profitable ; and, no mat- 
ter wliat dogmas may be, when that is the case, there 
will be plenty of converts. 

As to the popular doctrines of Mohammedanism, 
I shall here have nothing to say. The reader who is 
interested in that matter will find an account of them 
ill a review of the Koran in the eleventh chapter of my 
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.’’ 
It is enough now to remark that their heaven w'as ar- 
ranged in seven stories, and was only a palace of Orieii- 
tiil carnal delight. It was filled with black-eyed concu- 
bines and servants. The form (»f God was, perhaps, 
more awful^ than that of paganized Christianity. An- 
thropomoridiism will, however, never be obliterated 
from the ideas of the unintelleclual. Their Goil, at 
the best, will never be any thing more than the gigni- 
tic shadow of a man — a vast phantom of humanity— 
like one of those Alpine spectres seen in the midst of 
life clouds bydiiiu who turns his back on the sun. 

Abubeker had scarcely seated himself in the khalif- 
ato, when he put forth the following proclamation : 

In the name of the most merciful God ! Abubeker 



INVASION OP SYRU. 


87 


to the rest of the true believers, health and happiness. 
Tho mercy and blessing of God be upon I praise 
the most high God. I pray for his prophet Moham- 
med. 

“ Tftis is to inform you that I intend to send the 
tijie believers into Syria, to take it out of the liands of 
the infidels. And I would have you knevw tlmt the 
fighting for religion is an act of obedience to (lod.’^ 

On the first encounter, Khaled, tho Saracen general, 
hard pressed, lifted up his hands in the midst of his 
anny and said : ‘‘ O God ! these vile wretclics pmy with 
idolatrous expressions and take to themselves another 
Go<l besides thee, but we acknowledge thy unity and 
affirm that there is no other God but thee alone. Help 
us, we l)esecch thee, for the siike of tliy prophet Mo- 
Jiammed, against these idolaters.” On the part of the 
Sanicens tlio conquest of Syria was conducted with 
ferocious iu*ety, Tho belief of the Syrian Christians 
aroused in their antagonists sentiments of hornu* and 
indignation. “I will cleave the skull of any blasphem* 
ing idolater who says that the Most Holy (iod, the Al- 
mighty and Eternal, has begotten a son.'’ TIkj Khalif 
Omar, who took Jerusidem, commences a letl(*r to Jle- 
raclius, the Koinan emperor: “In the name of the most 
inercifiii God I Emisc be to God, the Lord of this ami 
of the other world, wlio has ncitluT female consort nor 
Bon.” The Saracens nicknamed the Christians “Assi>- 
ciators,” liecansc they joined ^lary and Jesus as pail- 
ners with the Almighty and Most Holy God. 

It was not the intention of tlie khalif to command 
his anny; that duty was devolved on Abou Gbei<fah 
nominally, on Khaled in rciility. In a parting n^dew 
the khalif enjoined on his troops justice, mercy, and the 
observance of fidelity in their engagements; he com- 



88 


FALL OF DOZRAU. 


inauded them to abstain from all frivolous conversation 
and from wine, and rigorously to observe the hours of 
prayer; to be kind to the common people among whom 
they passed, but to show no mercy to their priests. 

Eastward of the river Jordan is llozrah, a^ strong 
town where Mohammed had first met his Nestorian 
Christian instructors. It was one of the Roman forts 
with which the country was dotted over. Before this 
place the Saracen army encamped. The garrison was 
strong, the ramparts were covered with holy crosses 
and consecrated banners. It miglit have made a long 
defense. But its governor, Komanus, betrayed his trust, 
and stealthily opened its gates to the besiegers. lli;< 
conduct shows to what a deplorable condition the popu- 
lation of Syria had come. After the surrender, in a 
speech he made to the people ho had betrayed, he said : 
“I renounce your society, both in this world and that 
to come. And I deny him that was crucified, and 
whosoever worships him. And I choose God for nn 
Lord, Islam for my faith, Mecca for my temple, the 
Moslems for my brethren, Mohammed for my projdict, 
who was sent to lead us in the right way, and to exalt 
the true religion in spite of those who join partners 
with God.” Since the I^ersian invasion, Asia Minor, 
Syria, and ■even Palestine, were full of traitors and 
apostates, ready to join the Saracens. Romanus was but 
one of many thousands who had fallen into disbelief 
through the victories of the Persians. 

From Bozrah it was only seventy miles northward 
toJ)amascus, the capital of Syria. Thither, without de- 
lay, the Samcen army marched. The city was at once 
suminoiuxl to take its option— <*ouversion, tribute, or the 
swoiil. In his palace at Antioch, barely one hundred 
and fifty miles still farther north, the EnTij>eror Ileraclius 



FALL OF DAMASCUS. 


89 


received tidings of the alarming advance of his assail- 
ants. He at once dispatched an army of seventy thou- 
f;and men. The Saracens were compelled to raise the 
siege. A battle took place in the plains of Aiznadin, 
the Rolnan army was overthrown and dispersed. Kha- 
led reappeared before Damascus with his standard of 
the black eagle, and after a renewed iiivestyieiit of sev- 
enty days Damascus suri^endered. 

From the Arabian historians of these events avc may 
g:ither that thus far the Saracen armies were little bet- 
ter than a fanatic mob. 'Mmy of the men fought naked. 
It was not unusual for a warrior to stand forth in front 
and challenge an antagonist to mortal duel. Xay, more, 
even the women engaged in the comliats. J*ietures<]ue 
narnitives have been handed down to us relating the 
gallant manner in which they ac(juitted themselves. 

From Damascus the Saracen army advanced north- 
ward, guided by the snow-clad peaks of Libanus ainl 
the beautiful river Orontes. It captured on its way 
IJaalbee, the capital of the Syrian valley, and Km(‘sa, 
the chief city of the eastern plain. To resist its further 
progress, Ileraclius collected an army of one hundred 
and forty thousand men. A battle took jdacc* at Yer- 
muck; the right wing of the Saracens was broken, but 
the soWiers were driven back to the field by tlie fanatic 
exiH)8tulations of their women. The conflict ended in 
the complete overthrow of the JJoinan anny. Forty 
thousand were taken prisoners, and a vast number 
killed. The whole country now lay open to the victors. 
The advance of their anny haerbeen wi^t of the Jordan. 
It was clear that, before Asia Minor coiild be toucfied, 
the strong and important cities of Palestine, which was 
now in their rear, must be secured. There was a dif- 
ference of opfnion among the generals in the field as 



90 


FALL OF JERUSALEM. 


to . whether Cffisarea or Jerusalem should be assailed 
first. The matter was referred to the khalif , who, right- 
ly preferring the moral advantages of the capture of 
Jerusalem to the military advantages of the capture of 
Csesarea, ordered J:he Holy City to be taken, aifd that 
at any cost. Close siege was therefore laid to it. Tl:^p 
inhabitants, remembering the atrocities inflicted by the 
Persians, and the indignities that had been offered to 
the Savior’s sepulchre, prepared now for a vigorous 
defense. But, after an investment of four months, the 
Patriarch Sophronius appeared on the wall, asking terms 
of capitulation. There had been misunderstandings 
among the generals at the capture of Damascus, fol- 
lowed by a massacre of the fleeing inhabitants. Sophro- 
nius, therefore, stipulated that the surrender of Jeru- 
salem should take place in presence of the klialif himself. 
Accordingly, Omar, the khalif, came from Medina foi 
that purpose. lie journeyed on a red camel, carrying 
a bag of com and one of dates, a wooden dish, and a 
leathern water-bottle. The Arab conqueror entered the 
Holy City riding by the side of the Christian patriarch, 
and the transference of the capital of Christianity to 
the representative of IMohamuiedauism was effected 
without tumult or outrage. Having ordered that a 
mosque should be built on the site of the ten>ple of 
Solomon, the khalif returned to the tomb of the Proph- 
et at Medina. 

lleraclius sjiw plainly that the disastei-s which were 
fast settling on Christianity were due to the dissensions 
of its conflicting g\pcts ; and hence, while he endeavored 
to (Tofend the t»mpiro with his annies, he sedulously 
tried to compose those differences. With this view he 
pressed for acceptance the Mcmothelite doctrine of the 
nature of Christ. But it was now too late. Aleppo and 



FALL OF JERUSALEIL 


91 


Antiodi were taken. Nothing could prevent the Sara- 
oe^* from overrunning Asia Minor.' Heraclius hituaelf 
had to seek safety in flight. Syria, which had been 
added by Pompey the Great, tlie rival of Csesar, to the 
provinces of Rome, seven hundred years previously— 
Syria, the birthplace of Christianity, the scene of its 
most sacred and precious souvenirs, the land from 
which Heraclius himself had once expelled* the Persian 
intruder — was irretrievably lost. Apostates and traitors 
had wrought this calamity. Wo are told that, as the 
ship which bore him to Constantinople parted from the 
shore, Heraclius gazed intently on the receding hills, 
and in the bitterness of anguish exclaimed, “ Farewell, 
Syria, forever farewell ! ” 

It is needless to dwell on the remaining details ot 
the Saracen conquest : how Tripoli and Tyro wore be- 
trayed ; how Caesarea was captured ; how with the trees 
of Libanus and the sailors of Phoenicia a Saracen fleet 
was equipped, which drove the Roman navy into the Hel- 
lespont ; how Cyprus, Rhodes, and the Cyclades, were 
ravaged, and the Colossus, which was counted as one 
of the wonders of the world, sold to a Jew, who loaded 
nine hundred camels with its brass ; how the armies of 
the khalif advanced to the Black Sea, and even lay in 
front pf Constantinople — all this was as niithing after 
the fall of Jerusalem. 

The fall of Jerusalem ! the loss of the nretropolis of 
Christianity ! In the ideas of that age the two antago- 
nistic forms of faith had submitted themselves to the 
ordeal of the judgment of Oo(i Victory had awarded 
the prize of battle, Jcnisidem, to thoiMoliammedan; 
and, notwitlistanding the temporary successes pf the 
Crusaders, after much more than a thousand years in his 
hands it rcmauis to this day. The Byzantine historians 



92 


OVERTHROW OF THE PERSIANS. 


are not without excuse for the course they are con- 
demned for taking : “ They have wholly neglected the 
great topic of the ruin of the Eastern Church.” And 
as for the Western Church, even the debased popes' of 
the middle ages — the ages of the Crusades — coidd not 
see without indignation that they were compelled to 
rest the claims of Eoihe as the metropolis of Christen- 
dom on a false legendary story of a visit of St. Peter to 
that city ; while the true metropolis, the grand, the 
sacred place of the birth, the life, the death of Christ 
himself, was in the hands of the inlidcls ! It has not been 
the Byzantine historians alone who have tried to conceal 
this great catastrophe. The Christian writers of Europe 
on all manner of subjects, whether of history, religion, 
or science, have followed a similar course against their 
conquering antagonists. It has been their constant 
practice to hide what they could not depreciate, and de- 
preciate what they could not hide. 

I liave not space, nor indeed docs it comport with 
the intention of this work, to relate, in such detail as 1 
have given to the fall of Jerusalem, other conquests of 
the Saracens — conquests which eventually established a 
'Mohammedan empire far exceeding in geographical ex- 
tent that of Alexander, and even that of liome. But, 
<levoting a few words to this subject, it may be said 
that Magianism received a worse blow than that which 
had been indicted on Christianity. The fate of Persia 
was settled at the battle of Cadesia. At the sack 
of Ctesiphon, the treasurj', the royal anns, and an un- 
limited spoil, fell ^into the hands of the Saracens. Not 
without reason* do they call the battle of Nehavend 
“the \iotorv of victories.” In one direction they ad- 
vanced to the Caspian, in the other southward along 
the Tigris to Persepolis. The Persian king ded for his 



INVASION OF EGYPT. 


life over the great Salt Desert, from the columns and 
statues of that city which had lain in ruins since the 
night of the riotous banquet of Alexander. One di- 
vision of the Arabian army forced the Persian monarch 
over t"he Oxus. He was assassinated by the Turks. 
His son was driven into China, and became a captain in 
the Chinese emperor’s guards. The country beyond the 
Oxus was reduced. It paid a tribute of two million 
pieces of gold. Wliile the emperor at Peking was de- 
manding the friendship of the khalif at Medina, the 
standard of the Prophet was displayed on the banks of 
the Indus. 

Among the generals who had greatly distinguished 
themselves in the Syrian wars was Amrou, destined to 
be the conqueror of Egypt ; for the khalifs, not content 
with their victories on the North and East, now turned 
their eyes to the West, and prepared for the annexation 
of Africa. As in the fonner cases, so in this, sectarian 
treason assisted them. The Saracen army w-as hailed as 
the deliverer of the Jacobite Church; the Monophysite 
Christians of Egypt, that is, they Avho, in the language of 
the Athanasian Creed, confounded the substance of the 
Son, proclaimed, through their leader, Mokaukas, that 
they desired no communion with the Greeks, cither in 
this \forld or the next, that they abjured forever the 
Pyzantine tyrant and his synod of (/'halccdon. They 
hastened to pay tribute to the khalif, to repair the roads 
and bridges, and to supply 2)rovi8ion8 and intelligence 
to the invading army. 

Memphis, one of the old ‘Pharaonic capitals, soon 
fell, and Alexandria was invested. The’open sea behind 
gave opportimity to Heraclius to reenforce the garrison 
continually. On his part, Omar, who was now khalif, 
sent to the sticcor of the besieging army the veteran 



FALL OF ALEXANDRIA. 


94 

troops of Syria. There were many assaults and many 
sallies. In one Amron himself was taken prisoner -hy 
the besieged, but, through the dexterity of a slave, made 
his escape. After a siege of fourteen months, and a loss 
of twenty-three thousand men, the Saracens captured 
the city. In his dispatch to the khalif, Amrou enu- 
merated th^ splendors of the great city of the West, 
“its four thousand palaces, four thousand baths, four 
hundred theatres, twelve thousand shops for the sale of 
vegetable food, and forty thousand tributary Jews.” 

So fell the second great city of Cliristendom — the 
fate of Jerusalem had fallen on Alexandria, the city of 
Athanasius, and Arius, and Cyril; the city that had 
imposed Trinitarian ideas and Mariolatry on the Church. 
In his palace at Constantinople Ileraclius received the 
fatal tidings. He was overwhelmed with grief. It 
seemed as if his reign was to be disgraced by the down- 
fall of Christianity. He lived scarcely a month after 
the loss of the town. 

But if Alexandria had been essential to Constanti- 
nople in the supply of orthodox faith, she was also 
essential in the supply of daily food. Egypt was the 
granary of the Byzantines. For this reason two at- 
tempts were made by powerfid fleets and armies for the 
recovery of the place, and twice had Amrou to renew 
his conquest. He saw with what facility these attacks 
could be made, the place being open to the sea ; he saw 
that there was but one and that a fatal remedy. “ By 
the living God, if this thing be repeated a third time, 
I will make Alexandria &s open to anybody as is the 
^ houM of a prostitute I ” He was better than his word, 
for he forthwith dismantled its fortifications, and mnilA 
it an untenable place. 

It was not the intention of the khalifs*to limit their 



FALL OF CABTHAGK. 


95 


conquest to Egypt. Othman contemplated the anuoxa* 
tion of the entire North-African coast. His general, 
Abdallah, set out fi-om Memphis with forty thousand 
men, passed through the desert of Barca, and besieged 
TripolIT But, tlie plague breaking out in his army, he 
compelled to retreat to Egypt. 

All attempts were now suspended for, more than 
twenty years. Then Akhah forced his way from the 
Nile to the Atlantic Ocean. In front of the Canary 
Islands he rode his horse into the sea, exclaiming: 
“ Great God 1 if my course were not stopped by this 
sea, I would still go on to the unknown kingdoms of 
the West, preaching the unity of thy holy name, and 
putting to the sword the rebellious nations who woi'ship 
any other gods than thee.” 

These Saracen expeditions had been through the 
interior of the country, for the Byzantine emperore, 
controlling for the time the Mediterranean, had retained 
po-ssession of the cities on the coast. The Khalit 
Abdalmalck at length resolved on tho reduction ol 
Carthage, the most important of those cities, and in- 
deed the capital of North Africa, llis general, Hassan, 
carried it by escalade ; but reenforcements from Con- 
stantinople, aided by some Sicilian and Gothic troops, 
compelled him to retreat. The relief was, however 
only temporary. Ilassan, in the course of a few months, 
renewed his attack. It proved successful, and he de- 
livered Carthage to the flames. 

Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage, three out of tho 
five great Christian capitals, ^ere last. The fall of 
Constantinople was only a question of time. After its 
fall. Borne alone remained. ' 

In the development of Christianity, Carthage had 
played no insignificant part. It had given to Europe 



96 


CONQUEST OP SPAIN. 


its Latin form of faith, and some of its greatest theo- 
logians. It was the home of St. Augustine. 

Never in the history of the world had there been so 
rapid and extensive a propagation of any religion as !lM[o- 
hammedanism. It was now dominating from tfie Altai 
Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, from the centre pf 
Asia to the, western verge of Africa. 

The Khalif Alwalid next authorized the invasion of 
Europe, the conquest of Andalusia, or the Region of the 
Evening. Musa, his general, found, as had so often been 
the case elsewhere, two effective allies, sectarianism and 
treason — the Archbishop of Toledo and Count Julian the 
Gothic general. Under their lead, in the very crisis of 
the battle of Xcres, a large portion of the army went 
over to the invaders ; the Spanish king was compelled 
to flee from the field, and in the pursuit he was drowned 
in the waters of the Guadalquivir. 

With great rapidity Tarik, the lieutenant of Mu.sa, 
pushed forward from the battle-field to Toledo, and 
thence northward. On the arrival of Musa the reduc- 
tion of the Spanish peninsula was completed, and the 
wreck of the Gothic anuy driven beyond the Pyrenees 
into France. Considering the conquest of Spain as only 
the first step in his victories, lie announced his intention 
of forcing his way into Italy, and preaching the unity 
of God ill the Vatican. Thence he would march to 
Constantinople, and, having put an end to the Roman 
Empire and Christianity, would pass into Asia and lay 
his victorious sword on the footstool of the klialif at 
Damascus. 

Rut this was not to be. Musa, envious of his lieu- 
tenaift, Tarik, had treated him with great indignity. 
The friends of Tarik at the court of the klialif found 
means of retaliation. An envoy from* Damascus ar- 



INVASION OK FRANCE. 


97 


rested Miisa in his camp; he was carried before his 
sovereign, disgraced by a public whipping, and died of 
a broken heart. 

finder other leadei^s, however, the Saracen conquest 
of France was attempted. In a preliminary campaign 
th^ country from the mouth of the Garonne to that of 
the Loire was secured. Then Abderahman, the Saracen 
commander, dividing his forces into two columns, with 
one on the east passed the Ilhonc, and laid siege to 
Arles. A Christian army, attempting the relief of the 
place, was defeated with heavy loss. His western col- 
umn, equally successful, passed the Dordogne, defeated 
another Christian army, inflicting on it such dreadful 
loss that, according to its own fugitives, “ God alono 
could number the slain.” All Central France was now 
overrun ; the banks of the Loire were reached ; the 
churches and monasteries were despoiled of their treas- 
ures; and the tutelar saints, who had worked so many 
miracles when there was no necessity, were found to 
want the requisite power when it was so greatly needed. 

The progress of the invaders was at length stopped 
by Cliarles Martel (a. d. 732). HetNveen Tours and 
I'oictiers, a great battle, which lasted seven days, was 
fought. Abderahman was killed, the Saracens retreated, 
and soon afterward were compelled to recross the Py- 
renees. 

The banks of the Loire, therefore, mark the bound- 
•"^ry of the Mohammedan advance in Western Europe. 
Gibbon, in his narrative of these great events, makes 
diis remark: “A victorious linh of march had been 
prolonged above a thousand miles from* the rock of 
Gibraltar to the banks of the Tx)ire — a repetition dt an 
<^ual space would have carried the Saracens to the con- 
fines of Poland and the Highlands of Scotland.” 

n 



98 


INSULT TO ROME. 


It is not necessary for me to add to this sketch of 
the military diffusion of Mohammedanism, thp opera- 
tions of the Saracens on the Mediterranean Sea, their 
conquest of Crete and Sicily, their insult to Rome.’ It 
will 1)0 found, however, that their presence fa Sicily 
and the south of Italy exerted a marked influence pn 
the intellectual development of Europe. 

Their insult to Rome! What could be more hu- 
miliating than the circumstances under which it took 
place (a. d. 840)? An insignificant Saracen expedition 
entered the Tiber and appeared before the walls of the 
city. Too weak to force an entrance, it insulted and 
plundered the precincts, sacrilegiously violating the 
tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Had the city itself 
been sacked, the moral effect could not have been greater. 
From the church of St. Peter its altar of silver was torn 
away and sent to Africa — St. Peter’s altar, the very 
emblem of Roman Christianity ! 

Constantinople had already been besieged by the Sara- 
cens more than once ; its fall was predestined, and only 
postponed. Rome had received the direst insult, the 
greatest loss that could be inflicted upon it ; the venera- 
ble churches of .i\sia Minor had passed out (if existence; 
no Christian could set his foot in Jerusaiem without 
permission ; the Mosque of Cinar stood on the site of 
the Temple of Solomon. Among the ruins of Ale.xan- 
dria the Mosque of Mercy marked the spot where a 
Saracen general, satiated with massacre, had, in con- 
temptuous compassion, spared the fugitive relics of the 
enemies of Molwimmcd ; nothing remained of Carthage 
but her blackened ruins. The most powerful religious 
empire that the world had ever seen had suddenly come 
into existence. It stretched from the Atlantic Ocean 
to the Chinese Wall, from the sh.ores of the Caspian to 



DISSENSIONS OF THE ARABS. 


tliose^of the Indian Ocean, and yet, in one sense, it had 
not .reached its culmination. The day was to come 
when it was to expel the successors of the Ciesars from 
thei^ capital, and hold the peninsula of Greece in sub- 
jection, K) dispute with Christianity the empire of Eu- 
rope in the very centre of that continent, and in Africa 
to extend its dogmas and faith a(!‘ro6S burning dcseits 
and through pestilential forests from the Mediterranean 
to regions southward far beyond the equinoctial line. 

Uut, though Mohammedanism had not reached its 
ciihuination, the dominion of the khalifs had. Not the 
sword of Charles Martel, but the internal dissension of 
the vast Arabian Empire, was the salvation of Europe. 
Though the Ommiade khalifs were popular in Syria, 
elsewhere they were looked upon as intruders or usuiq)- 
ei*s ; the kindred of the apostle was considered to bo the 
rightful representative of his faith. Three parties, dis- 
tinguished by their colors, tore the khalifatc asunder 
with their disputes, and disgraced it by their atroci- 
ties. The color of the Oininiades was white, that of the 
Eatimites green, that of the Abassides black ; the last 
represented the party of Abbas, the uncle of Mobarnnied. 
The result of these discords was a tripartite (li\ision of 
the Mohammedan Eini)irc in tlie tcnlh century into the 
khalifatfs of Bagdad, of Cairo, and of Cordova. Uni- 
ty in Mohammedan piditicul action was at an end, and 
Christendom found its safeguard, not in supernatiira! 
help, but in the quarrels of the rival ])otentatef'. 'Jo 
internal animosities foreign pressures were eventually 
added ; and Arabisni, wdiich liad done^so much for the 
intellectual advanccinent of the world, catnc to an tnd 
when the Turks and the Berbers attained to ])owe 5 . 

The Saracens had become totally regardless of Euro- 
]>ean oppositioDr— they were wholly taken up with their 



100 


POLITICAL EFFECT OF POLYGAMY. 


domestic quarrels. Ockley says with truth, in his his- 
tory : “ The Saracens had scarce a deputy lieutenant or 
general that would not have thought it the greatest 
affront, and such as ought to stigmatize him with indel- 
ible disgrace, if he should have suffered himselMo have 
been insulted by the united forces of all Europe. And 
if any one^ asks why the Greeks did not exert them- 
selves more, in order to the extirpation of these inso- 
lent invaders, it is a sufficient answer to any peiwii that 
is acquainted with the characters of those men to say 
that Amrou kept his residence at Alexandria, and Moa- 
wyah at Damascus.” 

As to their contempt, this instance may suffice : Ni- 
cephorus, the Homan emperor, had sent to the Khalif 
Haroun-al-liaschid a threatening letter, and this was tlio 
reply : In the name of the most merciful God, Ilarouu- 
al-Raschid, commander of the faitliful, to Nicephoriis 
the Komaii dog! I have read thy letter, O thou son 
of an unbelieving mother. Thou shalt not hear, thou 
shalt behold my reply!” It was written in letters of 
blood and fire on the plains of Phrygia. 

A nation may recover the confiscation of its prov- 
inces, the confiscation of its \vealth ; it may survive the 
imposition of enormous war-fines ; but it never can re- 
cover from that most frightful of all war-acts, the con- 
fiscation of its women. When Abou Obcidah sent to 
Omar news of his capture of Antioch, Omar gently up- 
braided him that he had not let the troops have the 
women. ‘‘If they want to maiTy in Syria, let them; 
ivnd lot them ha^'e as rtiany female slaves as they have 
occasion for.” * It was the institution of polygamy, based 
upon the confiscation of the women in the vanquished 
countries, that secured foi-ever the Mohammedan nile. 
The children of these unions gloried in their descent 



MOHAMMEDAXISM. 


101 


froiiv their conquering fathers. No better proof can bo 
given of the efficacy of this policy than that which is 
furnished by North Africa. The irresistible effect of 
polygamy in consolidating the new order of things was 
very stnking. In little more than a single generation, 
the khalif was informed by his officers that the tribute 
must cease, for all the children born in that region were 
Mohammedans, and all spoke Arabic. 

Mohammedanism, as left by its founder, was an an- 
thropomorphic religion. Its God was only a gigantic 
man, its heaven a mansion of carnal pleasures. From 
these imperfect ideas its more intelligent classes very 
soon freed themselves, substituting for them othci*8 
more philosophical, more correct. Eventually they at- 
tained to an accordance with those that have l)een pro- 
nounced in our own times by the Vatican Council as 
orthodox. Thus Al-Gazzali says : “ A knowledge of 
God cannot be obtained by means of the knowledge a 
man has of himself, or of his own soul. The attribules 
of God cannot be detennined from the attril)iites of 
man. Ilis sovereignty and government can neither be 
compared nor measured.” 



CHAPTEE IV. 


THE RESTORATION OF SCIENCE IN THE SOITTH. 


Bn the ififluence of the Ncetor inns and Jev'e^ the Arabians are turned to 
the cultivation of St'icncc . — They moiVtfy their vtev's as to the destiny 
of many and obtain true conceptions respecting the structure of the 
world, — They ascertain the size of the earthy and determine its sha/te. 
-^Their khalifs collect great librarieSy jtatronize every department of 
science and liternturCy establish astronomical observatories. — They 
develop the mathematical scienceSy invent algebrOy and improve geom- 
etry and trigonometry.'-'^They collect and translate the old Greek 
mathematical and astronomical leorksy and adopt the inductive ntethnl 
of Aristotle . — They establish many collegeSy andy icith the aid of the 
Nestoriansy organize a pHblic-,srhool system . — They introduce the Ara- 
bic numerals and arithmetiCy and catalogue and give names to the 
stars . — They lay the foundation of modern astronomyy chemistry y and 
physieSy and introduce great improvements in agriculture and manu- 
factures, 

‘‘ In the coiii-sc of my long life/’ said the Klialif Ali, 
I have often ohserved that men arc more like the times 
they live in than they arc like their fathers.” This pro- 
foundly philosophical remark of the son-in-law of Mo- 
hammed is strictly true ; for, though the personal, the 
bodily lineaments of a man may indicate his parentage, 
the constitution of his mind, and therefore the direction 
of his thouglits, is detennined by the environment in 
which he lives. 

Wlicn Amrou, the lieutenant of the Khalif Omar, 
conquered Kgypt, and annexed it to the* Saracenic Era- 



THE ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY BURNT. 


103 


pire, lie found in Alexandria a Greek grammarian, John 
sumaraed Philoponus, or the Labor-lover. Presuming 
on the friendship which had arisen between them, the 
Greek solicited as a gift die remnant of the great libra- 
ry — ^a rftnnant which war and time and bigotry had 
spared. Amrou, therefore, sent to the khalif to ascer- 
tain his pleasure. “ If,” replied the khalif, “ the books 
agree with the Koran, the Word of God, they are use- 
less, and need not be preserved ; if tliey disagree with it, 
they are pernicious. Let them be destroyed.” Accord- 
ingly, they were distributed among the baths of Alex- 
andria, and it is said that six months were barely suffi- 
cient to consume them. 

Although the fact has been denied, there can be little 
doubt that Omar gave diis order. The klinlif was an 
illiterate man ; his environment was an environment of 
fanaticism and ignorance. Omar’s act w.os an illustra- 
tion of Ali’s remark. 

I3ut it must not be supposed that the books which 
John the Labor-lover coveted were tho.so which con- 
stituted the great library of the Ptolcmie.s, and that of 
Eumenes, King of Pergamus. Nearly a thousand years 
had elapsed since Philadelphus began his collection. 
Julius Caesar had burnt more than half ; tlic P.-itriarchs 
of Alexandria had not only pemiitted but sujicrintciuled 
the dispersion of almost all the re.“t. Orosin.) e.\prcs.sly 
states tluit he saw the empty casc.s or shelves of the library 
twenty years after Theophilus, the uncle of St. (Jyril, 
had procured from the Emperor Thcodo-sius a rescript 
for its destruction. Even had this oncp noble collection 
never endured such acts of violence, the ‘mere wear And 
tear, and perhaps, I may add, the pilfering of a thotisand 
years, would have diminished it sadly. Though John, 
as the surname he received indicates, might rejoice in 



104 the ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY BURNT. 

a superfluity of occupation, we may be certain thjit the 
care of a library of half a million books would tran- 
scend even his well-tried powers; and the cost of pre- 
serving and supporting it, that had demanded the ample 
resources of the Ptolemies and the Caesars, wsft beyond 
the means of a grammarian. Nor is the time required 
for its combustion or destimction any indication of the 
extent of the collection. Of all articles of fuel, parch- 
ment is, perhaps, the most wretched. Paper and papy- 
rus do excellently well as kindling-materials, but we 
may be sure that the bath-men of Alexandria did not 
resort to parchment so long as they could find any thing 
else, and of parchment a very large portion of these 
books was composed. 

There can, then, be no more doubt that Omar did 
order the destruction of this lilu’ary, under an impres- 
sion of its uselessness or its irreligious tendency, than 
that the Crusaders burnt the library of Tri])oli, fanci- 
fully said to have consisted of three million volumes. 
The first apartment entered being found to contain 
nothing but the Koran, all the other books were sup 
posed to be the works of the Arabian impostor, and 
were conseipiently committed to the flames. In both 
cases the story contains some truth and much exaggera- 
tion. Pigotry, however, has often distinguished itself 
by such exploits. The Spaniards burnt in Mexico vast 
piles of American j)icture-writings, an irretrievable loss; 
and (^irdinal Ximeiies delivered to the flames, in tlio 
squares of Granada, ciglity thousand Arabic manu- 
scripts, many gf them translations of classical au- 
thors. 

Vc have seen how engineering talent, stimulated by 
Alexander's Pei*sian campaign, led to a wonderfid de- 
velopment of pure science under the Ptolemies ; a simi- 



INFLUENCE OF THE NESTOUIANS AND JEWS. 106 


lar ^cct may be noted as the result of the Saracenic 
military operations. 

The friendship contracted by Amrou, the conqueror 
of Egypt, with John the Grammarian, indicates how 
much the Arabian mind was predisposed to liberal 
i(Jeas. Its step from the idolatry of the Caaba to the 
monotheism of Mohammed prepared it to expatiate in 
the wide and pleasing fields of literature and philosophy. 
There were two influences to which it was continually ex- 
posed. They conspired in determining its path. These 
were — 1, That of the Nestorians in Syria ; 2. That of 
the Jews in Egypt. 

In the last chapter I have briefly related the per- 
secution of Nestor and his disciples. Tlicy bore testi- 
mony to the oneness of God, tlirougli many sufferings 
and martyrdoms. They utterly repudiated an Olympus 
tilled with gods and goddesses. Away from us a 
queen of heaven 1 

Such being their sjiccial views, the Nestorians found 
no diftieulty in affiliating with their Saracen conquerors, 
l>y whom they were treated not only with the highest 
respect, but intrusted with some of the most imjmrtant 
offices of the state, ^Mohammed, in the strongest man- 
ner, prohibited liis followers from committing any in- 
juries against them. Jesuiabbas, their pontiff, concluded 
treaties both with the Prophet and with Omar, and sub- 
sequently the Khalif Ilaroun-al-Raschid placed all his 
public schools under the superintendence of John Masue, 
a Xestorian. 

To the influence of the Xestorians^that of the Jews 
was added. When Christianity displaye*d a tendency to 
unite itself with paganism, tlic conversion of th« JewB 
was arrested ; it totally ceased when Trinitarian ideas 
were introduced. The cities of Syria and Egypt were 



106 


FATALISM OF THE ARABIANS. 


full of Jews. In Alexandria alone, at the time of its 
capture by Amrou, there were forty thousand who paid 
tribute. Centuries of misfortune and persecution had 
served only to confirm them in their monotheism, and 
to strengthen that implacable hatred of idolati^ which 
they had cherished ever since the Babylonian captivity. 
Associated .with the Nestorians, they translated into 
Syriac many Greek and Latin philosophical works, which 
were retranslated into Arabic. While the Nestorian 
was occupied with the education of the children of the 
great Mohammedan families, the Jew found his way 
into them in the character of a physician. 

Under these influences the ferocious fanaticism of 
the Saracens abated, their manners were polished, their 
thoughts elevated. They overran the realms of Philos- 
ophy and Science as quickly as they had overran the 
provinces of the Roman Empire. They abandoned the 
fallacies of vulgar Mohammedanism, accepting in their 
stead scientific truth. 

In a world devoted to idolatry, the sword of the 
Saracen had vindicated the majesty of God. The doc- 
trine of fatalism, inculcated by the Koran, had power- 
fully contributed to that result. “ Ko man can antici- 
pate or postpone his predetermined end. Death will 
overtake us even in lofty towers. From the beginning 
God hath settled the place in Avhich each man shall die.” 
In his figurative language the Arab said : “ Ko man can 
by flight escape his fate. The Destinies ride their 
horses by night. . . . Whether asleep in bed or in the 
storm of battle, tf le ang^l of death will find thee.” “ I 
am' convinced,’' said Ali, to whose wisdom wo have al- 
readyn^ferred — “ I am convinced that the affairs of men 
go by divine decree, and not by our administration.” 
ThcMussulmcn are those who submissively resign them* 



FATALISM OP THE ARABIANS. 


107 


selvefl to the wUl of God. They reconciled fate and 
free-will by saying, The outline is given us, wo color 
the j)icture of life as we will.” They said that, if we 
would overcome the laws of Nature, w e must not resist, 
wo mus? balance them against each other. 

• This dark doctrine prepared its devotees for the ac- 
complishment of great things — things such as the Sara- 
cens did accomplish. It converted despair into resigna- 
tion, and taught men to disdain hope. There was a 
proverb among them that “ Despair is a freeman, Hope 
is a slave.” 

But many of the incidents of war showed plainly 
that medicines may assuage pain, that skill may closo 
wounds, that those who are incontestably dying may bo 
snatelied from the grave. The Jewish physician became 
a living, an accepted protest against the fatalism of the 
Koran. By degrees the sternness of predestination was 
mitigated, and it w’as admitted that in individual life 
there is an effect due to free-will ; that by his voluntary 
acts man may within certain limits determine his ow'ii 
course. But, so far as nations are concerned, since they 
can yield no personal accountability to God, they are 
placed under the control of immutable hw. 

In this respect the contrast between the Christian 
and thft Mohammedan nations w’as very striking: The 
Christian was convinced of incessant providential inter- 
ventions ; he believed that there w'as no such thing ns 
law in the government of the w'orld. By prayers and 
entreaties he might prevail wdth (4ud to change the cur- 
rent of affairs, or, if that failed, he might succeed wjth 
Christ, or perhaps w'ith the Virgin Mary, or through 
the intercession of tlie saints, or by the influence of 
their relics or bones. If his own supplications were un- 
availing, he might obtain his desire through the inter- 



108 


FATALIBU OF THK ARABIANS. 


vention of bis priest, or through that of the holy men 
of the Church, and especially if oblations or gifts of 
money were added. /Christendom believed that she 
could change the course of, affairs by influencing the con- 
duct of superior beings. Islam rested in a pious resig- 
nation to the unchangeable will of God.' ^he prayer.ot 
the Christian was mainly an earnest intercession for 
benefits hoped for, that of the Saracen a devout expres- 
sion of gratitude for the past.) Both substituted prayer 
for the ecstatic meditation of India. To the Christian 
the progress of the world was an e.vhibition of discoji- 
nected impulses, of sudden sui-prises. To the Mohaui- 
.medan that progress presented a very different aspect. 
Bvery corporeal motion was due to some preceding mo- 
tion ; every thought to some imeccding thought ; every 
historical event was tlie offspring of some preceding 
event; every human action was the result of some fore- 
gone and accomplished action. In the long annals of 
our race, instiling has ever been abru])t]y introduced. 
There lijis been an orderly, an inevitable sequence from 
event to event. There is an iron chain of destiny, ot 
^vhich the links are facts ; each stands in its preordained 
place — not one has ever been disturbed, not one has 
ever been removed. Every man came into the world 
without his own knowledge, he is to depart froih it per- 
haps against his own wishes. Then let him calmly fold 
his hands, and expect the issues of fate . ) 

Coincidently with this change of opinion as to the 
government of individual life, there came a change as 
respects the mc^thanicaf constimction of the world. Ac- 
cording to the Koran, the earth is a square plane, edged 
with* vast mountains, which serve the double purpose 
of balancing it in its seat, and of sustaining the dome 
of the sky. Our devout admiration of the jx)wcr and 



THEY MEASURE THE EARTH. 


109 


wisdoin of God should be excited by the spectacle of 
this vast crystalline brittle expanse, which has been safe- 
ly set in its position without so much as a crack or any 
other injuiy. Above the sky, and resting on it, is 
heaven. Built in seven stories, the uppermost being the 
haj^itation of God, who, under the form of a gigantic 
man, sits on a throne, having oh either side winged 
bulls, like those in the palaces of old Ass}Tian kings. 
These ideas, which indeed arc not peculiar to Mo- 
hammedanism, but are entertained by all men in a 
certain stage of their intellectual development as re- 
ligious revelations, were very quickly exchanged by 
the more advanced Mohammedans for others scientili- 
cally correct. Yet, as has been the case in Christian 
countries, the advance was not made without resistance 
on the part of the defenders of revealed truth. Thus 
when Al-Mamun, having become acquainted witli the 
globular form of the earth, gave orders to his mathema- 
ticians and astronomers to measure a degree of a great 
circle upon it, Takyuddin, one of the most celebrated 
doctors of divinity of that time, denounced the wicked 
khalif, declaring that God would assuredly punish him 
for presumptuously interrupting tlic devotions of the 
faithful by encouraging and diffusing a false and atheis- 
tical philosophy among them. Al-Mamun, liowever, per- 
sisted. On the shores of the lied Sea, in the plains of 
Shinar, by the aid of an astrolabe, the elevation of the 
pole above tlic horizon was determined at two stations 
oil the same meridian, exactly one degree apart. The 
distance between the two stations wa^^then measured, 
and found to be two hundred thousjuld Hashemite 
cubits ; this gave for the entire circumference of the 
cartli about twenty-four thousand of our miles, a deter- 
niination not far from the truth. But, since the spheri- 



no 


THEIR PASSION FOR SCIENCE, 


cal form could not be positively asserted from one such 
measurement, the khalif caused another to be made pear 
Cufa in Mesopotamia. His astronomers divided them- 
selves into two parties, and, starting from a given point, 
each party measured an arc of one degree,* the one 
northward, the other southward. Their result is given 
in cubits. If the cubit employed was that known as the 
royal cubit, tlie length of a degree was ascertained with- 
in one-third of a mile of its true value. From these 
measures the khalif concluded that the globular form 
was established. 

It is remarkable how quickly the ferocious fanati- 
cism of the Saracens w'as transformed into a passion for 
intellectual pursuits. At iirst the Koran was an obstacle 
to literature and science.' Moliammed had extolled it as 
the grandest of all compositions, and had adduced its un- 
approachable excellence as a proof of his divine mission. 
But, in little more than twenty years after his death, the 
experience that had been acquired in Syria, Persia, Asia 
Minor, Egypt, had produced a striking elfcet, and All, 
the khalif reigning at that time, avowedly encouraged 
all kinds of literary pursuits, Moawyah, the founder 
of the Ommiado dynasty, who followed in 6G1, revolu- 
tionized the governraent. It had been elective, he made 
it hereditary. He removed its scat from Medina to a 
more central position at Damascus, and entered on a 
career of luxury and magnilieence. He broke the bonds 
of a stern fanaticism, and put himself forth as a culti- 
vator and patron of letters. Thirty ycai*s had wrought 
a wonderful change. A Persian satrap who had occa- 
sion to pay hbmago to Omar, the second khalif, found 
him ^asleep among the beggars on the steps of the 
Mosque of Medina ; but foreign envoys who had occasion 
to seek Moawyah, the sixth khalif, were presented to him 



THEIR LITERATURE. 


Ill 


iu a nmgnificcnt palace, decorated with exquisite ara- 
besques, and adorned with flow^er-gardens and fountains. 

In less than a century after the death of Mohammed, 
tran^ aliens of the chief Greek philosophical authors had 
been inafle into Arabic ; poems such as the “ Iliad ” and 
the Odyssey,” being considered to have an irreligious 
tendency from their mythological allusions, wci’e ren- 
dered into Syriac, to gratify the curiosity of tlie learned. 
Alinansor, during his khalifate (a. d. 753-775), trans- 
ferred the seat of government to Bagdad, which he con 
verted into a splendid metropolis ; he gave much of his 
time to the study and promotion of astronomy, and 
rstablished schools of medicine and law. Ilis grand- 
son, Haroun-al-Raschid (a. d. 78G), followed his example, 
and ordered that to every mosque in his dominions a 
^chool sliould bo attached. But the Augustan age of 
Asiatic learning was during the khalifate of AI-Maniun 
(a. I). 813-832). He made Bagdad the centre of science, 
a»llcctcd great libraries, and surrounded himself with 
learned men. 

The elevated taste thus cultivated continued after 
the division of the Saracen Empire by internal dissen- 
sions into three parts. The Abasside dynasty in Asia, 
the Fatimite in Egypt, and the Gmmiadc in Spain, be- 
came rivals not merely in politics, but also in letters 
and science. 

In letters the Saracens embraced every topic thait 
can amuse or edify the mind. In later times, it was 
their boast that they had produced more poets than all 
otlier nations combined. In science tjieir great merit 
consists in this, that they cultivated it aftbr the manlier 
of the Alexandrian Greeks, not after the maimer of tho 
European Greeks. They perceived that it can never 
be advanced by mere speculation ; its only sure progress 



112 


THEY ORIGINATE CHEMISTRY. 


is by the pradiical interrogation of Nature. The essen- 
tial characteristics of their method are experiment -and 
observation. Geometry and the mathematical sciences 
they looked upon as instruments of reasoning. In their 
numerous writings on mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, 
it is interesting to remark that the solution of a problem 
is always ojbtained by performing an experiment, or by 
an instrumental observation. It was this that made 
them the originators of chemistry, that led them to the 
invention of all kinds of apparatus for distillation, sul)- 
limation, fusion, filtration, etc. ; that in astronomy caused 
them to appeal to divided instruments, as quadrants and 
astrolabes; in chemistry, to employ the balance, the 
theory of which they were perfectly familiar with ; to 
construct tables of specific gi*avitics and astronomical 
tables, as those of Bagdad, Sp.ain, Samarcand ; that pro- 
duced their great improvements in geometry, trigonom- 
etry, the invention of algebra, and the adoption of the 
Indian numeration in arithmetic. Such were the results 
of their preference of the inductive method of Aristotle, 
their declining the reveries of Plato. 

For the establishment and extension of the public 
libraries, books were sedulously collected. Thus the 
Khalif Al-Mamun is reported to have brought into 
Bagdad hundreds of camel-loads of manuscripts. In a 
treaty he made with the Greek emperor, Michael III., 
he stipulated that one of the Constantinople libraries 
should bo given up to him. Among the treasures he 
thus acquired was the treatise of Ptolemy on the mathe- 
matical construotion of 'the heavens. He had it forth- 
with translatcKl into Arabic, under the title of “Al- 
mageJbt.” The collections thus acquircd sometimes 
became very large; thus the Fa ti mite Library at Cairo 
contained one Iiundrcd thousand volumes, elegantly trail- 



THEIR GREAT LIBRARIES. 


113 


scribed and bound. Among these, there were six thou- 
s;ind*five hundred manuscripts on astronomy and medi- 
cine alone. The rules of this library permitted the 
leading out of books to students resident at Cairo. It 
altso contained two globes, one of massive silver and one 
of brass ; the latter was said to have been constnicted by 
rtolemy, the former cost three thousjind gold^m crowns. 
The great library of the Spanish khalifs eventually 
numbered six hundred thousand volumes ; its catalogue 
alone occupied forty-four. Besides this, there were 
fecventy public libraries in Andalusia. The collections 
in the possession of individuals were sometimes very 
extensive. A private doctor refused the invitation of a 
Sultan of Bokhara because the carriage of his books 
would have required four hundred camels. 

There was in every great library a department foi 
the copying or manufacture of translations. Such manu- 
factures were also often an affair of private enteiprise. 
llonian, a Nestorian physician, had an establisliinent of 
the kind at Bagdad (a. i>. 850). He issued versions of 
Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Galen, etc. As to ori- 
f^iiial works, it was the custom of the authorities of col- 
legers to require their professors to prepare treatises on 
prescribed topics. . Every khalif had his own historian. 
Books of romances and tales, such as “ The Thousand 
«nd One Arabi<an Nights’ Entertainments,” bear testi- 
niony to the creative fancy of the Saracens. Besides 
these, there were works on all kinds of subjects — his- 
tory, jurisprudence, politics, philosophy, biographies not 
t^nly of illustrious men, but alsft of celebrated horses 
‘»ud camels. These were issued without any cen8oi*shrp 
‘^r restraint, though, in later times, works on theoX>gy 
^*<iuired a license for publication. Books of itjference 
alxjunded, geographical, statistical, medical, historical, 

1 



114 


THEIR GREAT LIBRARIES. 


dictionaries, and even abridgments or condensations 
of them, as the “ Encyclopedic Dictionary of alL the 
Sciences,” by Mohammed Abu Abdallah. Much j^ride 
was taken in the purity and whiteness of the paper, in 
the skilKul intermixture of variously-colored \nks, and 
in the illumination of titles by gilding and other adojn- 
ments. 

The Saracen Empire was dotted all over with col- 
leges. They were established in Mongolia, Tartary, 
Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egy]:)t, North Africa, 
Morocco, Fez, Spain. At one extremity of this vast 
region, which far exceeded the Roman Empire in geo- 
graphical extent, were the college and astronomical oh- 
servatory of Samarcand, at the other the Giralda in 
Spain. Gibbon, referring to this patronage of learn- 
ing, says : “ The same royal prerogative was claimed by 
the independent emirs of the provinces, and their emu- 
lation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from 
Samarcand and Jlokliara to Fez and Cordova. The 
vizier of a sultan consecrated a sum of two hundred 
thousand pieces of gold to the foundation of a college 
at Bagdad, which ho endowed with an annual revenue 
of fifteen thousand dinars. The fruits of instruction 
were communicated, perhaps, at different times, to six 
thousand disciples of cveiy degree, from the sou of the 
noble to that of the mechanic ; a sufficient allowance 
was provided for the indigent scholars, and the merit or 
industry of the professors was repaid with adequate sti- 
pends. In every city the productions of Ambic litera- 
ture were copie^l and bollected, by the curiosity of the 
studious and the vanity of the rich.” The superintend- 
ence of these schools was committe<l with noble liberal- 
ity sometimes to Nestorians, sometimes to Jews. It 
mattered not in what country a man was bom, nor what 



THE ARABIAN SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT. 


11.5 


weie his religious opinions ; his attainment in learning 
was the only thing to be considered. The gi*cat Khali f 
Al-3famun had declared that ‘^they are the elect of 
(jod, his best and most useful servants, whose lives are 
devoted to the improvement of their rational faculties ; 
that the teachers of wisdom are the true luminaries and 
legislators of this world, 'which, without their.aid, would 
again sink into ignorance and barbarism.” 

After the example of the medical college of Cairo, 
other medical colleges required their students to pass a 
rigid examination. The candidate then received au- 
thority to enter on the practice of his profession. The 
lirst medical college established in Europe was that 
founded by the Saracens at Salerno, in Italy. The iirst 
astronomical observatory was that erected by them at 
Seville, in Spain. 

It would far transcend the limits of this hook to give 
an adequate statement of the results of this imposing 
scientific movement. The ancient scicmces were greatly 
extended — new ones were brought into existence. The 
Indian method of arithmetic was introduced, a beautiful 
invention, which expresses all numbers by ten cliarac- 
ters, giving them an absolute value, and a value by posi- 
tion, and furnishing simple rules for the ea.*?}' perfonn* 
ance of ffll kinds of calculations. Algebra, or universjil 
arithmetic — the method of calculating indeterminuta 
quantities, or investigating the relations that subsist 
among quantities of all kinds, whether arithmetical or 
geometrical — was developed from the germ that J)io- 
phantug had left. Mohammed Ben Mu^a furnished 
the solution of quadratic equations, Omar Ben Ibra- 
him that of cubic equations. The Saracens also gave 
to trigonometry its modem form, substituting sines for 
chords, which'had been previously used ; they elevated 



116 


ARABIAN ASTRONOMY. 


it into a separate science. Musa, above mentioned, was 
the author of a “ Treatise on Spherical Trigonometry.” 
Al-Baghadadi left one on land-surveying, so excellent, 
that by some it has been declared to be a copy of Eu- 
clid’s lost w^ork on that subject. * 

In astronomy, they not only made catalogues, ^ut 
maps of thp stars visible in their skies, giving to those of 
the larger magnitudes the Arabic names they still bear 
on our celestial globes. They ascertained, as we have 
seen, the size of the earth by the measurement of a de- 
gree on her surface, determined the obliquity of the 
ecliptic, published corrected taldes of the sun and moon, 
fixed the length of the year, verified the precession ol 
the equinoxes. The treatise of Albategniiis on “ The 
Science of the Stars is spoken of by I^place with re- 
spect ; he also draws attention to an important fragment 
of Ibn-Junis, the astronomer of llakem, the Khalif of 
Egypt, A. 1 ). 1000, as containing a long series of obser- 
vations from the time of Almansor, of eclipses, equi- 
noxes, solstices, conjunctions of planets, occultations of 
stars — observations which have cast much light on the 
great variations of the system of the world. The Ara- 
bian astronomers also devoted themselves to the con- 
struction and perfection of astronomical instruments, to 
the measurement of time by clocks of various kinds, by 
clepsydras and sunnlials. They were the first to intro- 
duce, for this puiq>ose, the use of the pendulum. 

In the experimental sciences, tlicy originated chem- 
istry ; they discovered some of its most important re- 
i^gents — siilphiiric acid, nitric aeid, alcohol. Tliey ap 
plied that science in the practice of medicine, being the 
first* to publish pharmacopaM;is or disj>ensatorie8, and to 
include in tliem mineral preparations. In mechanics, 
they had determined the laws of falling bodies, bad 



agriculture and manufactures. 117 

ideaa, by no means indistinct, of the nature of gravity ; 
they were familiar with the theory of the mechanical 
powers. In hydrostatics they constructed the first tables 
of tV specific gravities of bodies, and wrote treatises on 
the flotation and sinking of bodies in water. In optics, 
tljey corrected the Greek misconception, that a ray pro- 
ceeds from the eye, and touches fhe object seen, intro- 
ducing the hypothesis that the ray passes from tlie ob- 
ject to the eye. They understood the phenomena of 
the reflection and refraction of light. Alhazen made 
the great discovery of the curvilinear path of a ray of 
light through the atmosphere, and proved that we see 
the sun and moon before they have risen, and after they 
have set. 

The effects of tliis scientific activity are plainly per- 
ceived in the great improvements that took jdace in 
many of the indu.strial arts. Agriculture shows it in 
better methods of irrigidion, the skillful employment 
«)f manures, the raising of improved breeds of cattle, 
the enactment of wi.se codes of rural laws, the introduc- 
tion of the culture of ri<-e, and that of sugar and coffee. 
The manufactures show it in the great e.xtension of the 
industries of silk, cotton, wool ; in the fabricatitm of 
corilova aiul morocco leather, and ■j)aj)cr ; in mining, 
'•asting, and various mctallurgic ojK-rations; in the mak- 
ing of Toledo blade.s. 

Pa.ssionate l<»vcrs of poetry and music, tiny dedic.afod 
much of their leisure time to tho.se elegant pursuits. 
They taught Europe the game of chess; they gave it its 
taste for works of fiction — ronuinces aivl novels. In the 
graver <lomains of literature they took delight : they1ia<l 
many admirable compositions on such subjects as the 
instability of human greatness; the cfinscquenccs of irro- 
ligion ; the reverses o^ fortune ; the origin, duration, 



118 


THEIR THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT 


and end of the world. Sometimes, not without sur- 
prise, we meet with ideas which we flatter ouTMlves 
have originated in our own times. Thus our modem 
doctrines of evolution and development were taught in 
their schools. In fact, they carried them mucb farther 
than we are disposed to do, extending them even to in- 
organic or mineral things. The fundamental principle 
of alchemy Vas the natural process of development of 
metalline bodies. “When common people,” says AI- 
Khazini, writing in the twelfth century, “hear from 
natural philosophers that gold is a body which has at- 
tained to perfection of maturity, to the goal of com- 
pleteness, they firmly believe that it is something which 
has gradually come to that perfection by passing through 
the forms of all other metallic bodies, so that its gol<l 
miture was originally lead, afterward it became tin, 
then brass, then silver, and finally reached the develop- 
ment of gold ; not knowing that the natural philoso- 
phers mean, in saying this, only something like what 
they mean when they speak of man, and attribute to 
him a completeness and equilibrium in nature and con- 
stitution— not that man was once a hidl, and was changed 
’ into an ass, and afterward into a horse, and after that 
bto an ape, and finally became a man.” 



CHAPTEK V. 


CONFLICT RESPECriNO THE NATEJiK OF THE SOUL, — DOC- 
TRINE OF EMANATION AND AUSOUITION. 


European ideas rcvpeettnff the soul . — It r< sanities the form of the body, 
rhilosophical views of the Orientals. — The Vcdic theoloyy and Buddhism 
ass(rt the doctrine of emanation aiid absorption. — It is advocatetl by 
Aristotle^ who is followed by the Alexandrian school ^ and subsequently 
by the Jiws and Arabians. — It is found in the writings of Erigena. 
Connection of this doctrine with the ihory of conservation and correlation 
of force. — Parallil between the origin and destiny of the body and the 
soul . — The necessity of founding human on ettmparatiee jutyelmlogy 
Avtrrensm^ which is based on these faets^ is brought into ChrisU lulom 
through S/Miin and Eieily. 

JItstory of the repression of Avirroism. — Jhrolt of Islam against it . — 
Antagonism of tlw Jtwish synagogues. — It.s destruetUm undertaken 
by tfu pajxjry. — Institution of the Inquisition in Sjsiin. — Frightful 
persecutions and their residts. — Expulsion of the dues and Moors.-^ 
Overthrow of Avcrrolsni in Europe. — Jjtcisiir action ttf the late Vnti’ 
ran Council, 

• 

The pagan Greeks and Itoinaiis l)eliev(*d that tlic 
spirit of man resembles liis bodily fonn, varying its 
appearance witli his variations, and growing with his 
growth. Heroes, to whom it had ])een [)erniitted to de- 
*<'end into Hades, had therefore* witliouX ditHeulty recog- 
nized their former friends. Not only haJl the eoiiiofeal 
a^^pect been retained, bnt even the custoinary rain/ent. 

The primitive Christians, whose conceptions of S 
future life and of heaven and hell, the abodes of the 



120 


THE SOUL. 


blessed and the sinful, were far more vivid than, those 
of their pagan predecessors, accepted and intensified 
these ancient ideas. They did not doubt that in the 
world to come they should meet their friends, and hold 
converse with them, as they had done here uj^on earth 
—an expectation that gives consolation to the hunyin 
heart, reconciling it ‘ to the most sorrowful bereave- 
ments, and restoring to* it its dead. 

In the uncertainty as to what becomes of the soul 
in the interval between its separation from the body 
and the judgment-clay, many different opinions were 
held. Some thought that it hovered over the grave, 
some that it wandered disconsolate through the air. 
In the popular belief, St. Peter sat as a door-keeper at 
the gate of heaven. To him it had been given to bind 
or to loose. lie admitted or excluded the spirits of 
men at his pleasure. Many persons, however, were dis- 
posed to deny him this power, sin(*e his decisions would 
be anticipatory of the ju<lgmcnt-day, which would thus 
be rendered needless. After the time of Gregory the 
Great, the doctrine of purgatory met with general ac- 
ceptance. A resting-place was provided for depai-ted 
spirits. 

That the spirits of the dead occasionally revisit the 
living, or haunt their former abodes, has been in all 
ages, in all European countries, a fixed belief, not con- 
fined to rustics, but participated in by the intelligent. A 
jilejising terror g:ithei'S round the winteEs-evening fire- 
side at the stories of apparitions, goblins, ghosts. In 
the old times tlvi Komrfns had their lares, or spirits of 
those who Inuricil virtuous lives; their larvjc or lemures, 
tlie spirits of the wicked; their manes, the spirits of 
those of whom the merits were doubtful. If human 
testimony on such subjects can l>e of any value, there is 



ASIATIC FSTCHOLOQICAL VIEWS. 


121 


a body of evidence reaching from the remotest ages to 
the present time, as extensive and unimpeachable as is 
to be found in support of any thing whatever, that these 
shades of the dead congregate near tombstones, or take 
up their secret abode in the gloomy chambers of dilapi- 
dated castles, or walk by moonlight in moody solitude. 

While these opinions have universally foupd popular 
acceptance in Europe, others of a very different nature 
have prevailed extensively in Asia, and indeed very 
generally in the higher regions of thought. Ecclesias- 
tii^al authority succeeded in repressing them in the si.x- 
teenth century, but they never altogether disappearctl. 
In our own times so silently and extensively have they 
l>een diffused in Europe, that it was found expedient in 
the papal Syllabus to draw them in a very conspicuous 
iiiauncr into the open light; and the Vatican Council, 
agreeing in that view of their obnoxious tendency and 
secret spread, has in an e(iually prominent and signal 
manner among its first canons anathematized all ])cr- 
Nuis who hold them. “ Let him be anathema who siiys 
that spirittuil things arc emanations of the divine sub- 
stance, or that the divine essence by manifestation or 
development becomes all things.” In view c)f this 
authoritative action, it is necessjiry now to consider the 
chai-actfir and history of these opinions. 

Ideas respecting the nature of Cod necessarily in- 
riuence ideas rcsjMJcting the nature of the soul. , The 
Kistem Asiatics had adoi)ted the conception of an im- 
personal God, and, as regards the soul, its ncr-essary con- 
sequence, the doctrine of emanafion and .abwrption. 

Thus the Vcdic theology is based on the acknowl- 
e<lginent of a universal spirit pcrva<ling all things. 
“ There is in truth but one Deity, the supreme Spirit ; 
be is of the same nature as the soul of man.” Doth the 



122 


EMANATION AND ABSORPTION. 


Vedas and the Institutes of Menu afiSrin that the soul 
is an emanation of the all-pervading Intellect, and.tliat 
it is necessarily destined to be reabsorbed. They con- 
sider it to be without form, and that visible Nature, 
with all its beauties and harmonies, is only tile shadow 
of God. 

Vedaism developed itself into Buddliism, which has 
become the faith of a majority of the human race. This 
system acknowledges that there is a supreme Power, but 
denies that there is a supreme Being. It contemplates 
the existence of Force, giving rise as its manifestation 
to matter. It ado])ts the theory of emanation and ah 
soiption. Ill a burning taper it sees an efligy of man— 
an embodiment of matter, and an. evolution of force. 
Jf \\ Q interrogate it respecting the destiny of the soul, 
it demands of us what has become of the ilamc when it 
is blown out, and in what condition it was before the 
taper was lighted. Was it a nonentity ^ Has it been 
annihilated '{ It admits that the idea of personality 
which has deludi'd us through life may not be install 
taneously extinguidied at death, but may be lost by 
slow degrees. On this is founded the doctrine of traii>- 
niigration. But at length reunion with the universal 
Intellect takes place, Nirwana is reached, oblivion i'^ 
attained, a state that has no relation to matter, space, (»i 
time, the state into which the cleparted Ilamc of the ex- 
tinguished taper has gone, the state in whicli we were 
before we were born. This is the end that we ought 
to hope for ; it is rcabsorption in the universal Force- 
supremo bliss, eternal rest. 

Through ‘Aristotle these doctrines were first intro* 
ducoil into Eastern Europe; indeeil, eventually, as we 
shall see, he was regarded as the author of them. They 
excrtoil a dominating infiueiice in the later period of 



EMANATION AND ABSORPTION. 


123 


the Alexandrian school. Philo, the Jew, who lived in 
the tjiiie of Caligula, based his philosophy on the theory 
of emanation. Plotinus not only accepted that theory 
as applicable to the soul of man, but as affording an 
illustratioti of the nature of the Trinity. For, as a beam 
of light emanates from the sun, and as warmth ema- 
nates from the beam when it touches material bodies, 
so from the Father the Son emanates, and flience the 
Holy Ghost. From these views Plotinus derived a prac- 
tical religious sy stem, teaching the devout how to pass 
into a condition of ecstasy, a foretaste of absorption 
into the universfil mundane soul. In that condition the 
soul loses its individual consciousness. In like manner 
Por|>liyry sought absorption in or union with God. He 
was a Tvrian by l)irth, established a school at Pome, 
and wrote against Cliristianity ; his treatise on that sul)- 
jeet was answered by Kusebius and St. Jerome, but the 
Kinperor Theodosius silenced it more elTectually by 
cau>ing all the <‘oi»ies to be btirnt. Porjdiyry bewails 
Ins own unworthincss, saying that he had been united to 
(iod in ecstasy but once in eighty-six years, whereas his 
master Plotinus had been so united six times in sixty 
years. A comj)lcte system of theology, based on the 
theory of emanation, was con.structed by Proclus, who 
p|K'culatgd on tlie manner in Axhich al)sor])tion takes 
place: whether the soul instantly reabsorbe<l and re- 
nnited in the moment of death, or whether it retains 
the sentiment of ])ersonality for a time, and subsides 
into complete reunion by successive steps. 

From the Alexandrian Greeks these j<lcas passed to 
the Saracen philosojdicrs, who very wkj/i after tl/e 
^pture of the great Egj'ptian city abandoned to ♦the 
lower onlers their anthropomorphic notions of the na- 
ture of God and the simulacliral form of the spirit of 



124 


ARABIC PSYCUOLOGT. 


man. As Arabism developed itself into a distinct scien- 
tific system, the theories of emanation and absorption 
were among its characteristic features. In this aban- 
donment of vulgar Mohammedanism, the example of 
the Jews greatly assisted. They, too, had^ given up 
the anthropomorphism of their ancestors ; they had^ ex- 
changed the God who of old lived behind the veil of 
the temple for an infinite Intelligence pervading the 
universe, and, avowing their inability to conceive tliat 
any thing which had on a sudden been called into ex- 
istence should be capable of immortality, they attirnied 
that the soul of man is connected with a past of wliich 
there was no beginning, and with a future to which 
there is no end. 

In the intellectual history of Arabism the Jew and 
the Saracen are continually seen together. It was tlie 
same in their political history, wlicther we consider it in 
Syria, in Kgypt, or in Spain. From them conjointly 
Western Europe derived its philosophical ideas, which 
in the course of time culminated in Averroism ; Avcrro- 
ism is philosophical Islamism. Europeans generally re- 
garded Averrocs as the author of these heresies, and the 
ortliodox branded him accordingly, but ho was nothing 
more than their collector and coulmentator. Ilis works 
invaded Christendom by two routes : from Spain through 
Southern France they reached Upper Italy, engender- 
ing numerous heresies on their way ; from Sicily they 
passed to Naples and South Italy, under the auspices 
of Frederick II. 

But, long J)ofore Europe suffered this great intol- 
Ibctual invaMon, there were what miglit, perhaps, l>o 
tertned sporadic instances of Orientalism. As an ex- 
ample I may quote the views of John Erigcna(A. i). 
lie had adopted and taught the philosophy of Aristotle ; 



ERIGENA. 


125 


had made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of that philos- 
opher, and indulged a hope of uniting philosophy and 
religion In the manner proposed by the Christian eccle- 
siastics who were then kudying in the Mohammedan 
universities of Spain. lie was a native of Britain. 

.In a letter to Charles the Bald, Anastasius expresses 
liis astonishment “ how such a barbarian man, coming 
from the very ends of the earth, and remote from human 
conversation, could comprehend things so clearly, and 
transfer them into another language so well.” The 
general intention of his writings was, as we have said, 
to unite philosophy with religion, but his treatment of 
tiicsc subjects brought him under ecclesiastical censure, 
and some of his works were adjudged to the dames, 
llis most important book is entitled “ De Divisione Na- 
tune.” 

Erigena’s philosophy rests upon the observed and 
admitted fact that every living thing comes from some- 
thing that had previously lived. The visible world, 
l)eing a world of life, has therefore emanated necessarily 
from some primordial exi.stencc, and that existence is 
fiod, who is thus the originator and conservator of all. 
Wliatever we sec maintains itself as a visible thing 
through force derived from him, and, were that force 
witlulrafwn, it must necessarily disappear. Erigena thus 
conceives of the Deity as an unceasing participator in 
Mature, being its preserver, maintainer, upholder, and 
in that respect answering to the soul of tlie world of the 
Creeks. The particular life of individuals is therefore 
a part of general existence, that is, of th« mundane soul. 

If ever there were a withdrawal of the maintaining 
power, all things must return to the source from w'hich 
•hey issued — that is, they must return to God, and be ab- 
•^rbed in him. All visible Nature must thus past back 



126 


ERIGENA. 


into the Intellect at last. “ The death of the flesh is 
the auspices of the restitution of things, and of a return 
to their ancient conservation. So sounds revert hayk to 
the air in which they were bom, and, by which tliey 
were maintained, and they arc heard no more ; no man 
knows what has become of them. In that final absori> 
tion whichj after a lapse of time, must necessarily come, 
Ood will be all in all, and nothing exist but him alone.” 

I contemplate him as the beginning and cause of all 
things ; all things that are and those that have been, but 
now are not, were created from him, and by him, and 
in him. I also view him as the end and intransgressible 
term of all things. . . . There is a foui-fold conception 
of universal Nature — two views of divine Nature, as 
origin and end; two also of framed Nature, causes and 
effects. There is nothing eternal but God.” 

The return of the soul to the universal Intellect is 
designated by Erigena as Theosis, or Deification. In 
that final absorption all remembrance of its past experi- 
ences is lost. The soul reverts to the condition in which 
it was before it animated the body. Necessarily, there- 
fore, Erigena fell under the displeasure of the Church. 

It was in India that men first recognized the fact 
that force is iiidestnictiblc and eternal. This implies 
ideas more or less distinct of that which we noW term 
its ‘‘ correlation and conservation.” C'onsitlcrations con- 
nectetl with the stability of the universe give strength 
to this view, since it is clear that, were there either an 
increase or a diminution, the order of the world must 
cease. The detinite and invariable amount of energy in 
the universe must therefore be accepted as a scientific 
fact. • The changes we witness arc in its distribution. 

But, since tlie soul must be regarded as an active 
principle, to call a new one into existence out of noth- 



AL-GAZZALIS PSYCnOLOGY. 127 

I 

ing isi necessarily to add to the force previously in the 
world. And, if this has been done in the case of every 
individual who has been born, and is to be repeated for 
every individual hereafter, the totality of force must 
be continually increasing. 

Moreover, to many devout persons there is some- 
thing very revolting in the sug^stion that the Al- 
mighty is a servitor to the caprices and lusts of man, 
and that, at a certain term after its origin, it is necessary 
for him to create for the embryo a soul. 

Considering man as composed of two portions, a soul 
and a body, the obvious relations of the latter may cast 
much light on the mysterious, the obscure relations of 
the former. Now, the substance of which the body con- 
sists is obtained from the general mass of matter around 
ns, and after death to that general nuiss it is restored, 
lias Nature, then, displayed before our eyes in the ori- 
unn, mutations, and destiny of the material part, the- 
Iwdy, a revelation that may guide us to a knowledge of 
the origin and destiny of the companion, the spiritual 
part, the soul ? 

Let us listen for a moment to one of the most pow- 
erful of Mohammedan writem : 

“ God lias created the spirit of man out of a drop 
of his o»vn light ; its destiny is to return to him. Do 
not deceive youi’self with the vain imagination that it 
will die when the body dies. The form you had on' 
your entrance into this world, and your present form, 
are not the same ; hence there is no necessity of your 
perishing, on account of the perishing pf your body. 
^ our spirit came into this world a strangel* ; it is onljr 
sojourning, in a temporary home. From the trials and 
tempests of this troublesome life, our refuge is in God.' 
In reunion with him we shall find eternal rest — a rest 



128 


ARE ANIMALS AUTOMATA? 


without sorrow, a joy without pain, a strength without 
infirmity, a knowledge without doubt, a tranquil, and 
yet an ecstatic vision of the source of life and light and 
glory, the source from which we came.” So says the 
Saracen philosopher, Al-Gazzali (a. d. 1010). * 

In a stone the material particles are in a state ^of 
stable equilibrium ; it may, therefore, endure forever. 
An animal is in reality only a fonn through which a 
stream of matter is incessantly flowing. It receives its 
supplies, and dismisses its wastes. In this it resembles 
a cataract, a river, a flame. The particles that compose 
it at one instant have departed from it the next. It 
depends for its continuance on exterior supplies. It has 
a definite duration in time, and an inevitable moment 
comes in which it must die. 

In the great problem of psychology we cannot ex- 
pect to reach a scientific result, if we persist in restrict- 
ing ourselves to the contemplation of one fact. IVo 
must avail ourselves of all accessible facts. Human 
psychology can never be completely resolved except 
through comparative psychology. With Descartes, we 
must inquire whether the souls of animals be relations 
of the human soul, less perfect members in the same 
series of development. We must take account of what 
we discover in the intelligent principle of the ant, as 
well as w’hat wo discern in the intelligent principle of 
man. Where would human physiology be, if it were 
not illuminated by the bright irradiations of compara- 
tive physiology i 

Brodie, after an exhaustive consideration of the facts, 
affirms that the mind of animals is essentially the same 
as that of man. Every one familiar with tlie d<^ will 
admit tliat that creature knows right from wrong, and 
is conscious when be has committed a fault. Many 



ARE ANIMALS AUTOMATA? 


129 


domeetic animals have reasoning powers, and employ 
proper means for the attainment of ends. How nnincr- 
0U8 ^re the anecdotes related of the intentional actions 
of the elephant and the ape! Nor is this apparent 
intelligence due to imitation, to their association with 
man, for wild animals that have no such relation exhibit 
similar properties. In different species, the qipacity and 
character greatly vary. Thus the dog is not only more 
intelligent, but has social and moral qualities that the 
cat does not possess ; the former loves his master, tho 
latter her home. 

Du Bois-Iieymond makes this striking remark: 
“With awe and wonder must the student of Nature 
regard that mieroscojuc molecule of nervous substance 
which is the seat of the laborious, constructive, orderly, 
loyal, dauntless soul of the ant. It has developed 
itself to its present state through a countless series of 
generations.’’ What an impressive inference we may 
dniw from the statement of JIuber, who has written so 
well on this subject: “If you will watch a single ant at 
Work, you can tell what lie will next do ! ” He is con- 
sidering the matter, and reasoning as you are d()ing. 
Listen to one of the many anecdotes which Huber, at 
once truthful and artless, relates: “On the visit of an 
ovcrsccV ant to the works, when the laborers had begun 
the roof too soon, he examined it and had it taken dowm, 
the wall raised to the proper height, and a new ceiling 
constructed with the fragments of the old one.” Surely 
these insects are not automata, they show intention. 
They recognize their old companions, nvho have been 
shut up from them for many months, and exhibit senti- 
ments of joy at their return. Their antennal lan^agc 
is capable of manifold expression ; it suits the interior 
of the nest, where all is dark. 

K 



130 


ARE ANIMALS AUTOMATA? 


While solitary insects do not live to raise their ypung, 
social insects have a longer term, they exhibit moral 
affections and educate their offspring. Patterns of pa- 
tience and industry, some of these insignificant creat- 
ures will work sixteen or eighteen hours a dSy. Few 
men are capable of sustained mental application m^re 
than four 9r five hours. 

Similarity of effects indicates similarity of causes; 
similarity of actions demands similarity of organs. I 
would ask the reader of these paragraphs, who is famil- 
iar with the habits of animals, and especially with the 
social relations of that wbnderful insect to which refer- 
ence has been made, to turn to the nineteenth ehaptcrof 
my work on the Intellectual Development of Europe,’’ 
in which ho will find a description of the social system 
of the Incas of Peru. Perhaps, then, in view of the 
similarity of the social institutions and personal conduct 
of the insect, and the social institutions and personal 
conduct of the civilized Indian — th^e one an insignificant 
speck, the other a man — ^lie wdll not be disposed to dis- 
agree with mo in the opinion that “from bees, and 
wasps, and ants, and birds, from all that low animal life 
on which ho looks with supercilious contempt, man is 
destined one day to learn what in truth ho really is.” 

The views of Descartes, who regarded all insects as 
automata, can scarcely bo accepted without modifica- 
tion. Insects arc automata oidy so far as the action of 
their ventral cord, and that portion of their cephalic 
ganglia which deals with contemporaneous impressions, 
is ^concerned. * 

It is one of the functions of vesicular-nervous mate- 
rial to retain traces or relics of impressions brought to 
it by the organs of sense ; hence, nervous ganglia, being 
composed of that material, may be considered as rogis- 



FUNCTIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 


131 


tering apparatus. They also introduce the element of 
time into the action of the nervous mechanism. An 
impression, which without them might have forthwith 
ended in reflex action, is delayed, and with this duration 
come airthose important effects arising through the in- 
teraction of many impressions, old and new, upon each 
other. 

There is no such thing as a spontaneous, or self- 
originated, thought. Every intellectual act is the con- 
sequence of some preceding act. It comes into exist- 
ence in virtue of something tliat has gone before. Two 
minds constituted precisely alike, and placed under the 
influence of precisely the same environment, must give 
rise to precisely the same thought. To such sameness 
of action we allude in the popular expression common- 
sense” — a term full of meaning. In the origination of 
a thought there are two distinct conditions : the state of 
the organism as dependent on antecedent impressions, 
and on the existing physical circumstances. 

In the cephalic ganglia of insects are stored up the 
relics of impressions that have been made uj)on the 
common peripheral nerves, and in them are kej)t those 
which are brought in by the organs of sj^ccial sense — 
the visual, olf active, auditory. The interaction of these 
raises insects above mere mechanical automata, in which 
the reaction instantly follows the impression. 

In all cases the action of every nerve-centre, no mat- 
ter what its stage of development may be, high or low, 
depends upon an essential chemical condition — oxida- 
tion. Even in man, if the supply of arterial blood bo 
stopped but for a moment, the nervc-m6chanism lOfees 
its power; if diminished, it correspondingly declines; 
if» on the contrary, it be increased — as when nitrogen 
monoxide is breathed — there is more energetic action. 



132 


REGISTERED IMPRESSIONS. 


Hence there arises a need of repair, a necessity for rest 
and sleep. 

Two fundamental ideas are essentially attached to 
all our perceptions of external things : they are Space 
and Time, and for these provision is made in* the ner- 
vous mechanism while it is yet in an almost rudimentjgy 
state. The eye is the organ of space, the ear of time ; 
the perceptions of which hy the elaborate mechanism 
of these structures become infinitely more precise than 
would be possible if the sense of touch alone were re- 
sorted to. 

Tliere are some simple experiments w'hieh illustrate 
the vestiges of ganglionic impressions. If on a cold, 
polished metal, as a new razor, any object, such as a 
wafer, be laid, and the metal be then breathed upon, 
and, when tho moisture has had time to disappear, the 
wafer be thrown off, though now the most critical in- 
spection of the polished surface can discover no trace of 
any form, if we breathe once more upon it, a spectnd 
image of tho wafer comes plainly into view ; sind this 
may be done again and again. Nay, more, if the pol- 
ished metal bo carefully put aside where nothing can 
deteriorate its surface, and be so kept for many months, 
on breathing again upon it the shadowy form emerges. 

Such an illustration shows how trivial an impression 
may bo thus registered and preserved. But, if, on such 
an inorganic surface, an impression may thus be indel- 
ibly marked, how much more likely in the purposely- 
constructed ganglion I A shadow never falls upon a 
vail without leaving thereupon a permanent trace, a 
trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper 
pnx^sscs. Photographic operations are cases in point. 
Tlie portraits of our friends or landscape views, may 
1)0 hidden on the sensitive surface from the eye, but 



REGISTERED IMPRESSIONS. 13 ^ 

they, arc ready to make their appearance as soon as 
proper developers are resorted to. A spectre is con* 
cealed on a silver or glassy surface until, by our necro- 
mancy, we make it come forth into the visible world. 
Upon tllb walls of our most private apartments, where 
we think the eye of intrusion is altogether shut out 
and our retirement can never be profaned, there exist 
the vestiges of all our acts, silhouettes of Whatever we 
have done. 

If, after the eyelids have been closed for some time, 
as when wo first awake in the morning, we suddenly 
and steadfastly gaze at a brightly-illuminated object 
aud then quickly close the lids again, a phantom image 
is perceived in the indefinite darkness beyond us. Wo 
may satisfy ourselves that this is not a fiction, but a re- 
ality, for many details that we had not time to identify 
ill tlie momentary glance may be contemplated at our 
leisure in the phantom. We may thus make out the pat- 
tern of such an object as a lace curtain hanging in the 
window, or the branches of a tree beyond. Jly degrees 
the image becomes less and less distinct ; in a minute 
or two it has disappeared. It seems to have a ten- 
dency to fioat away in the vacancy before ns. If we 
attempt to follow it by moving the eyeball, it suddenly 
vanishes. 

Such a duration of impressions on the retina proves 
that the effect of external influences on nerve-vesicles 
i< not necessarily transitory. In this there is a corre- 
spondence to the duration, the emergence, the extinction, 
of impressions on photographic preparations. Thus, I 
have seen landscapes and architectural fiews taken* in 
Mexico developed, as artists say, months subsequently 
in New York — the images coming out, after the long 
voyage, in all their proper forms and in all their pro[)or 



134 


EXPLANATION OF MEMORT. 


contrast of light and shade. The photograph had for* 
gotten nothing. It had equally preserved the contour 
of the everlasting mountains and the passing smoke of 
a bandit-fire. 

Are there, then, contained in the brain moth perma- 
nently, as in the retina more transiently, the vestige 
of impressions that have been gathered by the sensory 
organs? Is this the explanation of memory — the 
Mind contemplating such pictures of past things and 
events as have been committed to her custody. In her 
silent galleries are there hung micrographs of the living 
and the dead, of scenes that we have visited, of inci- 
dents in which we have borne a part? Are these abid- 
ing impressions mere signal-marks, like the letters of a 
book, which impart ideas to the mind ? or are they actual 
picture-images, inconceivably smaller than those made 
for us by artists, in which, by the aid of a microscope, 
we can see, in a space not bigger than a pinhole, a whole 
family group at a glance ? 

The phantom images of the retina are not percep- 
tible in the light of the day. Those that exist in the 
sensorium in like manner do not attract our attention 
so long as the sensory organs are in vigorous operation, 
and occupied in bringing new impressions in. But, when 
those organs become weary or dull, or when we experi- 
ence hours of great anxiety, or are in twilight reveries, 
or are asleep, the latent apparitions have their vivid- 
ness increased by the contrast, and 'obtrude themselves 
on the mind. For the same reason they occupy us in 
the delirium of fevers, dud doubtless also in the splemn 
moments of death. During a third part of our life, in 
sleep, nre are withdrawn from external influences; hear- 
ing and sight and the other senses are inactive, but the 
never-sleeping Mind, that pensive, that veiled enchant- 



NATI7RE OF RELIGIOUS IHI RESSIONR 


185 


fPflfl, ijn her mvsterious retirement, looks over the am- 
brotgrpes die has collected— ambrotypes, for they are 
tnily unfading impresmona— and, combining them to* 
gether, as they diance to occur, constructs from them 
the panofama of a dream. 

Nature- has thus implanted in the oiganization of 
every mim means which impressivdy suggest to him the 
immortality of the soul and a future life.' Even the 
benighted savage thus sees in his visions the fading 
forms of landscapes, which are, perhaps, ccmnected with 
some of his most pleasant recollections ; and what other 
conclusion can he possibly extract from those unreal 
pictures than that they are the foreshadowings of an* 
other land beyond that in which his lot is cast t At 
intervals he is visited in his dreams by the resemblances 
of those whom he has loved or hated while they were 
alive; and these manifestations are to him incontro- 
vertible proofs of the existence and immortality of the 
soul. In our most refined social conditions we arc 
never able to shake off the impressions of these occur* 
renoes, and are perpetually drawing from them the same 
conclusions that our imeivilized ancestors did. Our 
more elevated condition of life in no respect relieves 
us from the inevitable operation of our own organiza- 
tion, any more than it. relieves us from infirmities and 
disease. In these respects, all over the globe men are 
on an equality. Savage or civilized, w'e carry witUn 
08 a mechanism which presents us with mementoes of 
the most solemn facts with which we can be concerned. 
It wants only moments of repode or sickness, when the 
influence of external things is diminished’, to come idto 
fnll play, and these are precisely the moments whoi we 
are best prepared for the truths it is going to suggest. 
’Hiat mechanism is no respecter of persons. It neither 



136 EFFECT OF REGISTERED IMPRESSIOKS. 

permits the haughtiest to be free from the monitions, 
nor leaves the humblest without the consolation of a 
knowledge of another life. Open to no opportunities 
of being tampered with by the designing or interested, 
•requiring no extraneous human agency for Its effect, 
but always present with every man wherever he may 
go, it marvelously extracts from vestiges of the impres- 
sions of the past over\\dielming proofs of the realities of 
the future, and, gathering its power from what would 
seem to be a most unlikely source, it insensibly leads 
us, no matter who or where we may be, to a profound 
belief in the immortal and imperishable, from phantoms 
which have scarcely made their appearance before they 
arc ready to vanish away. 

The insect differs from a mere automaton in this, 
that it is iniluenced by old, by registered impressions. 
In the higher forms of animated life that registration 
becomes more and more complete, memory becomc> 
more perfe(*t. There is not any necessary resemblance 
between an external form and its ganglionic impres- 
sion, any more than there is between the words of a 
message delivered in a telegraphic office and the signals 
which the telegraph may give to tlie distant station; 
any more than there is between the letters of a printed 
page and the acts or scenes they describe, but dhe Ict- 
tcre call up with clearness to the mind of the reader 
the events and scenes. 

An animal without any apparatus for the retention 
of impressions must be a pure automaton — it cannot 
have memory. ^Vom insignificant and uncertain begin* 
nihga, such ah apparatus is gradually evolved, and, as 
its itevelopment advances, the intellectual capacity in- 
creases. In man, this retention or registration reaches 
perfection; ho guides himself by past as well as by 



COMMUNICATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 


137 


present impressions ; he is influenced by experience ; 
bis conduct is determined by reason. 

A most important advance is made when the capa- 
bility is acquired by any animal of imparting a knowl- 
edge of the impressions stored up in its own nerve-cen- 
tres to another of the same kind. This marks the ex- 
tension of individual into social lif(5, and indeed is essen- 
tial thereto. In the higher insects it is accoiAplished by 
antennal contacts, in man by speech. Humanity, in its 
earlier, its siivage stages, was limited to this : the knowl- 
tnlge of one person could be transmitted to another by 
euuvers4\tion. The acts and thouglits of one generation 
could be imparted to another, and influence its acts and 
thoughts. 

Jhit tradition has its limit. The faculty of speech 
makes society possible — nothing more. 

Not without interest do we remark the progress of 
dcvelojnnent of this function. The invention of the art 
of writing gave extension and durability to the registra- 
tion or record of impressions. These, which had hitherto 
l>een stored up in the brain of one man, might now bo 
imparted to the whole human race, and be made to en- 
dure forever. Civilization became possible — for civili- 
zation cannot exist without writing, or the means of 
record in some shape. 

From this psychological point of view we |xux*civo 
the real significance of the invention of printing — a de- 
velopment of writing which, by incrciising the rapidity 
of the diffusion of ideas, and insuring their iwrinanencc, 
tends to promote civilization and*to unifjithe human race. 

In the foregoing paragraphs, relating fo nervous ftn- 
pressions, their registry, and tlie consequences tliat spring 
from them, I liave given an abstract of views presented 
in my work on ‘‘Human Physiology,'’ published in 



188 


TOEORY OP EMANATION. 


1856, and may, therefore, refer the reader to the .chap- 
ter on “ Inrerse Vision, or Cerebral Sight ; ” to Chaptw 
XIV., Book 1. ; and to Chapter VIII., Book 11. ; of- that 
work, for other particulars. 

The only path to scientific human psychology, is 
through comparative psychology. It is a long and 
wearisome path, but it leads to truth. 

Is there, then, a vast spiritual existence pervading 
the universe, even as there is a vast existence of matter 
pervading it — ^a spirit which, as a great German author 
tells us, “sleeps in the stone, dreams in the animal, 
awakes in man ^ ” Does the soul arise from the one as 
the body arises from the other ? Do tliey in like man- 
ner return, each to the source from which it has come ? 
If so, we can interpret human existence, and our ideas 
may still be in imison with scientific truth, and in ac- 
eord with our conception of the stability, the unchangea- 
bility of the universe. 

To this spiritual existence the Saracens, following 
Eastern nations, gave the designation “ the Active Intel- 
lect.” They believed that the soul of man emanated 
from it, as a rain-drop comes from the sea, and, after a 
season, returns. So arose among them the imposing 
doctrines of emanation and absorption. The active in- 
tellect is God. 

In one of its forms, ns wo have seen, this idea was 
developed by Chakia Monni, in India, in a most mas- 
terly manner, and embodietl in the vast practical system 
of Buddhism ; in another, it was with less power pre- 
sented among 'the Saracens by Averroes. 

But, perhaps wo ought rather to say tliat Europeans 
hold Averroes as the author of this doctrine, because 
they saw him isolated from his antecedents. But Mo- 



aVESROISH. 


189 


liammedans gave him little credit for ori^nality. He 
stood to them in the light of a commentator on Aris- 
totle, and as presenting the opinions of the Alexandrian 
and other pUlosophical schools up to his time. The 
following ‘excerpts from the " Historical Essay on Aver- 
roism,” by M. Kenan, will show how closely the Sara- 
cenic ideas approached those presented above : 

This system supposes that, at the death ol^ an indi- 
ridnal, his intelligent principle or soul no longer pos- 
sesses a separate existence, but returns to or is absorbed 
in the universal mind, the active intelligence, the mun 
dane soul, which is God ; from whom, indeed, it had 
originally emanated or issued forth. 

The universal, or active, or objective intellect, is 
uncreated, impassible, incorruptible, has neither begin- 
ning nor end ; nor does it increase as the number of in- 
dividual souls increases. It is altogether separate from 
matter. It is, as it were, a cosmic principle. This one- 
ness of the active intellect, or reason, is the essential 
principle of the Averroistic theory, and is in harmony 
with the cardinal doctrine of Mohammedanism — ^tho 
unity of God. 

The individual, or passive, or subjective intellect, is 
an emanation from the universal, and constitutes what 
IS termed the soul of man. In one sense it is perishable 
and ends with the body, but in a higher sense it en- 
dures ; for, after death, it returns to or is absorbed ih 
the universal soul, and thus of all human souls there 
remains at last but one — the aggregate of them alL 
hife is not the property of the individual, it belongs to 
Mature. The end of man is to enter into ‘union moi« 
and more complete with the active intellect — reaSon. 
In that the happiness of the soul consists. Our dee- 
h'ny is quietude. It was the opinion of Averroes that 



140 


AVERROISM 


the transition from the individual to the universal ig 
instantaneous at death, but the Buddhists maintain tliat 
human personality continues in a declining manner 
for a certain term before nonentity, or Nirwana, is at 
tained. * 

Philosophy has never proposed but two hypotheses to 
explain the system of the world : first, a personal God 
existing apart, and a human soul called into existence 
or created, and thenceforth immortal ; second, an imper- 
sonal intelligence, or indeterminate God, and a soul emer- 
ging from and returning to him. As to the origin of 
beings, there are two opposite opinions : first, that they 
are created from nothing; second, that they conic In 
development from preexisting forms. The theory of 
creation belongs to the first of the above hypotheses, 
that of evolution to the last. 

Philosophy among the Arabs thus took the same 
direction that it had taken in China, in India, and in- 
deed tliroughout the East. Its whole spirit depended 

on the admission of tlie iiidestructibilitv of matter am! 

•/ 

force. It siiw an analogy between the gathering of tl.e 
material of whicli the body of man consists from the 
vast store of matter in Nature, and its final restoratinii 
to that store, and the emanation of the spirit of man 
from the universjd Intellect, the Divinity, and* its final 
reabsoiption. 

Having thus indicated in suflicient detail the philo- 
sophical characteristics of the doctrine of emanation and 
absoiption, I Inive in fhe next place to relate its historj'. 
It was introduced into Europe by the Spanish Arabs. 
Spmn was the focal point from which, issuing forth, it 
affected the ranks of intelligence and fashion all over 
Europe, and iu Spain it had a melancholy end. 



ANDALUSIAN CIVILIZATION. 


141 


The Spanish khalifs had surrounded themselves with 
all the luxuries of Oriental life. They had magniticcnt 
palacQS, enchanting gardens, seraglios filled with beau- 
tiful woin^n. Europe at the present day does not offer 
more taste, more refinement, more elegance, than might 
been seen, at the epoch of which we are speaking, 
in the capitals of the Spanish Arabs. Their streets were 
lighted and solidly paved. The houses were frescoed 
and carpeted ; they were wanned in winter by furnaces, 
and cooled in summer with perfumed air brought by 
underground pipes from flower-beds. They had baths, 
and libraries, and dining-halls, fountains of quicksilver 
and water. City and country were full of conviviality, 
and of dancing to the lute and mandolin. Instead of the 
dnankeu and gluttonous wassjiil orgies of tlieir Nortli- 
cm neighbors, the feasts of the Saracens were marked 
by sobriety. Wine was prohibited, Tlie enchanting 
moonlight evenings of Andalusia were sj>ent by the 
floors in sequestered, fairy-like gardens or in orange- 
groves, listening to the romances of the story-teller, or 
engaged in philosophical discoum* ; consoling themselves 
for the disappointments of this life by such reflections 
as tliat, if virtue were rewarded in this world, we should 
l»c without expectations in the life to come ; and recon- 
ciling tliemselvcs to their daily toil by the expectation 
that rest will be found after death — a rest never to be 
succeeded by labor. 

In the tenth century the Khalif Ilakem II. had made 
dutiful Andalusia the paradise of the world. Chris- 
bans, Mussulracn, Jews, mixed together^ without re- 
straint. There, among many celebrated names that 
descended to our times, was Gcrbcrt, destined sulv 
^uently to become poj>e. There, too, was Peter the 
^ enerable, and many Christian ecclesiastics. Peter 



AVERROISM IN ANDALUSIA. 


U'Z 

says that he found learned men even from Britain pur- 
suing astronomy. All learned men, no matter -from 
what country they came, or what their religious views- 
were welcomed. The khalif had in his palace a inauu, 
factory of hooks, and copyists, binders, ilfuminators. 
Ho kept book-buyers in all the great cities of Asiajrnd 
Africa. His library contained four hundred thousand 
volumes, superbly bound and illuminated. 

Throughout the Mohammedan dominions in Asia, in 
Africa, and in Spain, the lower order of Mussulincn en- 
tertained a fanatical hatred against learning. Among 
the more devout — those who claimed to be orthodox— 
there were painful doubts as to the salvation of the 
great Khalif Al-Mamun — the wicked khalif, as they 
called him — for he had not only disturbed the people 
by introducing the writings of Aristotle and other 
Greek heathens, but had even struck at the existence 
of heaven and hell by saying that the earth is a globe, 
and pretending that he could measure its size. These 
persons, from their numbers, constituted a political 
power. 

Almansor, who usurped the khalifatc to the preju- 
dice of Hakom’s son, thought that his usurpation would 
be sustained if ho put himself at the head of the ortho- 
dox party. He therefore had the library of llakem 
searched, and all works of a scientific or philosophical 
nature carried into the public places and burnt, or 
thrown into the cisterns of the pahice. By a similar 
court revolution Averroes, in his old age— he died A. n 
1198 — was expelled from Spain; the religious party 
Had triumphed over the philosophical. He was dfr 
noitnced as a traitor to religion. An opposition to phi- 
losophy had been organized all over the Mussulman 
world. There was hardly a philosopher who was not 



ATERROISH AMONG TUE JEWS. 


143 


punifiked. Some were put to death, and the conse- 
quence was, that Islam was full of hyj)ocrites. 

Into Italy, Germany, England, Averroism had 
silently made its way. It found favor in the eyes of 
the Franciscans, and a focus in the University of Paris. 
By very many of the leading minds it had been ac- 
cepted. But at length the Dominicans, th^ rivals of 
the Franciscans, sounded an alarm. They said it de- 
stroys all personality, conducts to fatalism, and renders 
inexplicable the difference and progress of individual 
intelligences. The declaration that there is but one in- 
tellect is an error subversive of the merits of the saints, 
it is an assertion that there is no difference among men. 
What ! is there no difference between the holy soul of 
Peter and the damned soul of Judas? are they identi- 
cil ? Avcrrocs in this his blasphemous doctrine denies 
creation, providence, revelation, the Trinity, the efficacy 
of prayers, of alms, and of litanies ; he disbelieves in 
the resurrection and immortality; he places the sum- 
mum boiium in mere pleasure. 

So, too, among the Jews who were then the leading 
intellects of the world, Averroism had been largely prop- 
agated. Their great writer Maimonides had thorough- 
ly accepted it; his school was spreading it in all direc- 
tions. A furious persecution arose on the part of the 
orthodox Jews. Of Maimonides it had been formerly 
their delight to declare that he was “ the Eagle of the 
Doctors, the Great Sage, the Glory of the West, the 
Light of the East, second only to Moses.” Now, they 
proclaimed that he had abandoned the faUh of Abrjh 
; had denied the possibility of creation, believed in 
the eternity of the world ; had given himself up to* the 
nianufacture of atheists ; had deprived God of his attri- 
hates ; made a vacuum of him ; liad declared him inac- 



144 


SUPPBE^ION OF AVEKHOISM. 


•ceBsible to prayer, and a stranger to the governnieut of 
the world. The works of Maimonides were committed 
■to the flames by the synagogues of Montpellier, Barce- 
lona, and Toledo. 

Scarcely had the conquering arms of Ferclinand and 
Isabella overthrown the Arabian dominion in Si^in, 
when measures were taken by the papacy to extinguish 
these opinions, which, it was believed, were undermining 
European Christianity. 

Until Innocent IV. (1243), there was no special tri- 
bunal against heretics, distinct from those of the bishops. 
The Inquisition, then introduced, in accordance with 
the centralization of the times, was a general and papal 
tribmial, which displaced the old local ones. The bish- 
ops, therefore, viewed the innovation witli great dislike, 
considering it as an intrusion on their riglits. It wa» 
established in Italy, Spain, Gennany, and the southeni 
provinces of France. 

The temporal sovereigns were only too desirous to 
make use of this powerful engine for their own political 
purposes. Against this the popes strongly protested. 
They were not willing that its use should pass out of 
tlie ecclesiasticjd hand. 

The Inquisition, having already been tried in the 
south of France, had there proved to be very 'effective 
for the suppression of heresy. It had been introduced 
into Aragon. Ifow was assigned to it the duty of deal- 
ing with the Jews. 

In the old times uiuler Visigothic rule these people 
had greatly prospered^ but the leniency that had been 
sliown to them was succeeded by atrocious persecution, 
whdn the Visigoths abandoned their Arianism and be- 
came orthodox. The most inhuman ordinances were 
issued against them — a haw was enacted condemning 



SLPrRUSSION' OF AVERROISM. 


U5 


them till to be slaves. It was not to be wondered at 
thatjVhen the Saracen invasion took place, the Jews did 
whatever they could to promote its success. They, like 
the Arabg, were an Oriental people, both traced tlieir 
lineage to Abraham, their common ancestor; both were 
believers in the unity of God. It .was their defense of 
that doctrine that had brought upon them th§ hatred of 
their Visigothic masters. 

Under the Saracen rule they were treated with the 
liighest consideration. They became distinguished for 
their wealth and their learning. For the most part they 
were Aristotelians. They founded many schools and 
colleges. Their mercantile interests led them to travel 
all over the world. They particularly studied the science 
(»f medicine. Throughout the middle ages they \vero 
the physicians and bankera of Europe. Of all men they 
^aw the course of human affairs from the most elevated 
jKiint of view. Among the special sciences they became 
proficient in mathematics and astronomy ; they com- 
posed the tables of Alfonso, and were the cause of the 
voyage of De Gama. They distinguished themselves 
greatly in light literature. Im-oiii the tenth to the four- 
teenth century their literature was the first in Eurojie. 
They w^ere to be found in the courts of princes as phy- 
ei<*ians, or as treasurers managing the public finances. 

The orthodox clergy in Navarre liad excited popular 
prejudices against tlicm. To esea])o the persecutions 
that arose, many of them feigned to turn Christians, and 
of these many apostatized to their former faith. The 
papal nuncio at the court of Castile raised.a cry for tl^e 
cstablisliment of the Inquisition. The poorer Jews were 
accused of sacrificing Christian children at the Passover, 
*n mockerj" of the crucifixion ; the richer were denounced 
a« Averroists. Under the influence of Torf|ue?nada, a 

L 



146 


THE INQUISITION. 


Dominican monk, the confessor of Queen Isabella, that 
princess solicited a bull from the pope for the estabiish- 
inent of the Holy Office. A bull was accordingly issued 
in November, 1478, for the detection and suppression 
of heresy. In the first year of the operation of the In- 
quisition, 1481, two thousand victims were burnt «in 
Andalusia \ besides these, many thousands were dug up 
from their graves and burnt ; seventeen thousand wen? 
fined or imprisoned for life. Whoever of the persecuted 
race could flee, escaped for his life. Torquemada, now 
appointed inquisitor-general for Castile and Leon, illus- 
trated his office by his ferocity. Anonymous accusa- 
tions were received, the accused was not confronted hy 
witnesses, torture was relied upon for conviction ; it uas 
inflicted in vaults where no one could hear the cries of 
the tonnented. As, in pretended inercy, it was for]>id- 
den to inflict torture a second time, with horrible du])li- 
city it was affirmed that the torment had not been com- 
pleted at first, but had only been suspended out of 
charity until the following day! The families of the 
convicted were plunged into irretrievable ruin. I.lo- 
rentc, the historian of the Inquisition, coiiqmtcs that Tor- 
quemada and his collaborators, in the course of eigbteeii 
years, burnt at the stake ten thousiuul two hundred and 
tw’enty pereous, six thousand eight hundred and sixty 
in oflSgy, and otherwise punished ninety-seven thousand 
three hundred and twenty-one. Tliis frantic priest de- 
stroyed Hebrew Bibles wherever he could find them, 
and burnt six thousand volumes of Oriental literature 
at Salamanca^ under an imputation that they inculcated 
Judaism. With unutterable disgust and indignation, 
we lepm that the papal govenunent realized much 
money by selling to the rich dispensations to secure 
them from the Inquisition* 



BANISHMENT OF THE JEWS. 


u: 


B^it all these frightful atrocities proved failures. 
The conversions were few. Torqueinada, therefore, 
insisted on the immediate banishment of every un- 
kiptized Jew. On March 30, 1402, the edict of expul- 
sion was Signed. All unbaptized J ews, of whatever age, 
sex, or condition, were ordered to leave the realm by the 
end of the following July. If they revisited it, they 
should suffer death. They might sell their effects and 
take the proceeds in merchandise or bills of exchange, 
but not in gold or silver. Exiled thus suddenly from 
the land of their birth, the land of their ancestors for 
hundreds of years, they could not in the glutted market 
that arose sell what they possessed. Nobody would 
purchase what could be got for nothing after July, 
The Spanish clergy occupied themselves by pi*eaching 
in the public sejuares sermons tilled with denunciations 
against their victims, who, when the time for expatria- 
tion came, swarmed in the roads and lilled the air with 
their cries of despair. Even the Spanish onlookers 
wept at the scene of agony. Tonpiemada, however, 
enforced the ordinance that no one should ailord them 
any help. 

Of the banished persons some made their way into 
Africa, some into Italv; the latter carried with them 

■X-r 

toJsaples ship-fever, which destroyed not fewer than 
twenty thousand in that city, and devastated that penin- 
Hila; some reached Turkey, a few' England. Thoii- 
Stands, especially mothers with nursing chihlren, infants, 
old people, died by the way : many of them in the 
^igonies of thirst. 

This action against the Je\v8 was soon followed by 
^ne against the Mf^ors. A praginatica was issued at 
Seville, February, 1502, setting forth the obligations of 
the Castilians to drive the enemies of God from the 



14S 


EXPULSION OF THE MOORS. 


land, and ordering that all iinbaptized Moors in the 
kingdoms of Castile and Leon above the age of infancy 
should leave the country by the end of April. They 
might sell their property, but not take away any *gohl 
or silver ; they were forbidden to emigrate to the Mo 
hammedan dominions ; the penalty of disobedience v;as 
death. Tljeir condition was thus worse than that of 
the Jews, who had been permitted to go wdiere they 
chose. Such was the fiendish intolerance of the Span- 
iards, that they asserted the government would be justi- 
fied ill taking the lives of all the Moors for their shame- 
less infidelity. 

What an ungrateful return for the toleration that 
the Moors in their day of power had given to the Chris- 
tians! No faith was kept with the victims. Granada 
had surrendered under the solemn guarantee of the full 
enjoyment of civil and religious liberty. At the insti- 
gation of Cardinal Ximenes that pledge was broken, and. 
after a residence of eight centuries, the Mohammedan^ 
were driven out of the laud. 

The coexistence of three religions in Andalusia — tla* 
Christian, the Mohammedan, the Mosaic — had givm 
opportunity for the development of Averroisin or pliiic- 
Bophical Arabism. This was a repetition of what had 
occurred at Home, when the gods of all the concpicrcd 
countries were confronted in that capital, and universd 
disbelief in them all ensued. Avcrrocs himself was a<' 
cused of having been first a Mussulman, then a Cliri- 
tian, then a, Jew, and finally a misbeliever. It wa- 
allirmcd that he was the author of the mysterious book 
Tribus Impostoribus.'’ 

In the middle ages there were two celebrated hereti- 
cal books, The Everlasting Gospel,’’ and the “ 



. 4VSER0IS1C IN EUROPiL 


149 


Impocrtoribus.” The latter was variously imputed 
to Pope Gerbert, to Frederick II., and to Averroes. In 
their tmrelenting hatred the Dominicans fastened all 
the ^blasphemies current in those times on Averroes; 
they ne^r tired of recalling the celebrated and out- 
rageous one respecting the eucharist. Ilis writings had 
lirst been generally made known to Christian Europe 
by the translation of Michael Scot in tlie bbginning of 
the thirteenth century, but long before his time the 
literature of the West, like that of Asia, was full of these 
ideas. We have seen how broadly they were set forth 
by Erigcna. The Arabians, from their first cultivation 
of philosophy, had been infected by them ; they were 
current in all tlie colleges of the three khalifates. 
Considered not as a mode of thouglit, that will sponta- 
neously occur to all men at a certain stage of intellectual 
development, but as having originated with Aristotle, 
they continually found favor with men of the liighest 
culture. We see them in llobert Grostete, in Roger 
llacon, and eventually in Spinoza. Averroes wuis not 
their inventor, he merely gave them clearness and ex- 
preshion. Among the Jews of the thirteenth century, 
he had coinjdetely sujtplanted his imputed nnister. Aris- 
totle had passed away from their eyes; Ids great com- 
nientaUir, Averroes, stood in his place. So numerous 
Were the converts to the doctrine of emanation in Chris- 
tendom, tliat Pope Alexander IV. (1255) found it neces- 
^0' interfere. By his order, Alhertus Magnus com- 
posed a work against the “Unity of the Intellect.” 
Iroatingof the origin and nature of the soul, he at- 
tempted to prove that the theory of “a separate intellect, 
enlightening man by irradiation anterior to the individ- 
ual and surviving the individual, is a detestable error.” 
But the most illustrious antagonist of the great com- 



150 


ST. THOMAS COMBATS AVEBBOISM. 


mentator was St. Thomas Aquinas, the destroyer of all 
such heresies as the unity of the intellect, the denial of 
Providence, the impossibility of creation ; the victories 
of “the Angelic Doctor” were celebrated not only in 
the disputations of the Dominicans, but al^ in the 
works of art of the painters of Florence and Pisa. TJie 
indignation of that saint knew no bounds when Chris- 
tians beeam'e the disciples of an infidel, who was worse 
than a Mohammedan. The wrath of the Dominicans, 
the order to which St. Thomas belonged, was sharpened 
by the fact that their rivals, the Franciscans, inclined 
to Averroistic views; and Dante, who leaned to the 
Dominicans, denounced Averroes as the author of a 
most dangerous system. The theological odium of all 
three dominant religions was put upon him ; he was 
pointed out as the originator of the atrocious maxim 
that “ all religions are false, although all are proba- 
bly useful.” An attempt w'as made at the Council 
of Vienne to have his writings absolutely suppressed, 
and to forbid all Christians reading them. The Do- 
minicans, anned with the weapons of the Inquisition, 
terrified Christian Europe with their unrelenting perse- 
cutions. They imputed all the infidelity of the time? 
to the Arabian philo.sopher. But ho was not without 
support. In Paris and in the cities of Northern Italy 
the Franciscans sustained his views, and all Christendom 
was agitated with these disputes. 

Under tlie inspiration of the Dominicaos, Averroes 
became to the Italian painters the emblem of unbelief. 
Many of the Italian totvns had pictures or frescoes of 
the Day of Judgment and of Hell. In these Averroes 
not Unfrcquently appears. Thus, in one at Pisa, he 
figiires wnth Arius, Mohammed, and Antichrist. In 
another he is represented as overthrown by St. Thomas. 



AVJiRROISM ANATHEMATIZED. 


151 


He l«Mi become an essential element in the triumphs of 
the -great Dominiean doctor. He continued thus to ho 
familiar to the Italian painters until the sixteenth cen- 
tury. His doctrines were maintained in the University 
of Padujf until the seventeenth. 

Such is, in brief, the history of Averroism as it in- 
vaded Europe from Spain- Undei* the auspices of Fred- 
erick II., it, in a less imposing manner, ifesued from 
Sicily. That sovereign liad adopted it fully. In his 
“Sicilian Questions” he had demanded light on the 
eternity of the world, and on the nature of the soul, 
and supposed he had found it in the replies of Ibn Sabin, 
an upholder of these doctrines. But in his conflict with 
the papacy ho was overthrown, and with him these 
heresies were destroyed. 

In Upper Italy, Averroism long maintained its 
ground. It was so fashionable in high Venetian so- 
ciety that every gentleman felt constrained to profess 
it. At length the Church took decisive action against 
it. The Latcran Council, a, n. 1513, condemned the 
abettors of these detestable doctrines to be held as here- 
tics and infldels. As we have seen, the late Vatican 
Council has anathematized them. Notwitlisfciuding 
that stigma, it is to bo borne in mind that these opin- 
ions aw held to bo true by a majority of the human 
race. 



CHAPTER VI 


CONFLICT EESrECTINO THE NATCEE OF THE WOELD. 


Scriptural view of tlie world: the earth a fiat turf ace ; location of heaven 
and hell. 

Scientific view • the earth a glohc ; its size determined ; its position in ant 
relations to the solar system . — The three great voyages.-— Coltimhus, 
De Oama^ Magellan. — Circumnavigation of the earth. — Detei'inin>i 
tion of its curvature by the measurement of a degree and by the pend t- 
I urn. 

The discoveries of Coj>crmnts. — Invention of the telescope . — (}aUh>> 
broftght before the Impiisitum. — llis punishment . — Victory over th 
Church. 

Attempts to ascertain the dimen.Hions of the solar system . — Deter mintit ion 
of the sun's parallax by the transits of Venus. — Insignificance if the 
earth and man. 

Ideas respecting (he dimensions of the universe. — Parallax of the stars . — 
The plurality of worhls asserted by Bruno. — He is seized and mur- 
dered by the Inquisition. 

I HAVK now to present llio discussions tlijjt arose 
respecting the third great pliilosopliical problem— the 
nature of the world. 

An uncritical observation of the aspect of Nature 
persuades us that the earth is an extended level surface 
whicii sustains the dome of tlie skv, a finnament divid- 
ing the waters above from the watei-s beneath; that the 
heavenly bodies — the sun, the moon, the stars — pursue 
their way, moving from east to west, their insignificant 
size and motion round the motionless earth proclaiming 



THEOLOGICAL VIEW OF THE EARTH. 


153 


their .inferiority. Of the various organic forms sur- 
rounding man none rival him in dignity, and hence ho 
seems justified in concluding that every thing has been 
created for his use — the sun for the purpose of giving 
him light*by day, the moon and stars by night. 

, Comparative theology shows us that this is the con- 
ception of Nature universally adopfcd in the early phase 
of intellectual life. It is the belief of all nations in all 
})tirt8 of the world in the beginning of their civilization : 
geocentric, for it makes the earth the centre of the uni- 
verse ; anthropocentric, for it makes man the central 
object of the earth. And not only is this the conclusion 
g|)6ntaneou8ly come to from inconsiderate glimpses of 
the world, it is also the philosophical basis of various 
religious revelations, vouchsafed to man from tijne to 
time. These revelations, moreover, declare to liiin that 
:il»ovo the crystalline dome of the sky is a region of 
eternal light and happiness — heaven — the abode of (lod 
and the angelic hosts, perhaps also his own abode after 
•Icafh ; and beneath the earth a region of eternal dark- 
ness and misery, the habitation of tho.se that are evil. 
In the visible world is thus seen a picture of the in- 
visible. 

Cn the basis of this view of the stnu'ture (tf the 
World great religious systems have been founded, and 
hence powerful material interests have been engage*! 
in its support. These have resisted, sometimes by re- 
sorting to Ijloodshcd, attempts that have been made to 
correct its incontestable errors — a rc.'-istancc grounded 
on the suspicion that the localizjilion of heaven and hell 
and the supreme value of man in the universe might 6e 
affected. 

That such attempts would be made was inevitable. 
As soon as men began to reason on the subject at all, 



154 


THEORY OF COSMAS INDICOPLEUSTEb. 


they could not fail to discredit the assertion tli^t the 
earth is an indefinite plane. No one can doubt that the 
fiun we see to-day is the self-same sun that we saw yes- 
terday. Ilis reappearance each morning irresistibly sug- 
gests that he has passed on the underside of •the earth. 
But this is incompatible with the reign of night inthpse 
regions. It presents more or less distinctly the idea ol 
the globulhr form of the earth. 

The earth cannot extend indefinitely downward ; for 
the sun cannot go through it, nor through any crevia* 
or passage in it, since he rises and sets in different posi- 
tions at different seasons of the year. The stars also 
move under it in countless coui*ses. There must, there- 
fore, be a clear way bcTicatli. 

To reconcile revelation with these innovating facts, 
schemes, such as that of Cosmas Indicopleustes in hi.< 
Christian Topography, w'cre doubtless often adopted. 
To this in particular we have had occasion on a former 
page to refer. It asserted that in the northern parts of 
the fiat earth there is an iinnicnsc mountain, behind 
which the sun passes, and thus produces night. 

At a very remote historical period the mechanism 
of eclipses had been discovered. Those of the moon 
demonstrated that the shadow of the earth is always cir- 
cular. The form of the earth must therefore be globu- 
lar. A body which in all positions casts a circular 
shadow must itself be spherical. (Jther considerations, 
with which every one is now' familiar, couy not fail to 
establish that such is her figure. 

But the d(itermination of the shape of the earth by 
no means deposed her from licr position of superiority. 
Apparently vastly larger than all other things, it was 
fitting that she should he considered not merely as the 
centre of the world, but, in truth, as — the world. AH 



ANCIEM measures of the EARTH’S SIZE. 155 


other .objects in their aggregate seemed utterly uni m- 
portant in comparison with her. 

Though the consequences flowing from an admission 
of the globular figure of the earth affected very pro- 
foundly existing theological ideas, they were of much 
le^ moment than those depending on a determina- 
tion of her size. It needed but ah elementary knowl- 
edge of geometry to perceive that correct ideas on this 
point could be readily obtained by measuring a degree 
on her surface. Probably thei*e were early attempts to 
accomplish this object, the results of which have been 
But Eratosthenes executed one between Syenc 
and Alexandria, in Egypt, Syene licing sujqiosed to be 
exactly under tlie tropic of Cancer. Tlie two places 
are, liowevcr, not 011 the same meridian, and the dis- 
tance between them was estimated, not measured. Two 
centuries later, Posidonius made another atternjit be 
tween Alexandria and Itliodes; tlie briglit star Canopus 
just grazed the horizon at tlie latter place, at Alexandria 
it rose In tliis instance, also, since the direction 

lay across the sea, the distance was estimated, not mejis- 
urc<l. Finally, as wc liave already related, the Khalif 
Al-.Mamuii made two sets of measures, one on the shore 

the Ivcd Sea, the other ne:ir (hifa, in Mt'sojiotamia. 
Tlu' gei>enil result these various observations gave for 
tile earth’s diameter between seven and eight fhousand- 
miles. 

This approximate determination of tlie size of the 
earth tended to depose licr from her dominating posi- 
tion, and gave rise to very serioustlieologicul results. In 
this the ancient invehtigations of Aristarchus of Hamos, 
ene of the Alexandrian sc*hool, 2 S0 b. c., powerftilly 
aideil. In his treatise on the magnitudes and dishinces 
of the sun and moon, lie explains the ingenious though 



156 


THE PYTHAGOREAN SYSTEM. 


imperfect method to which he had resorted for the solu- 
tion of that problem. Many ages previously a specula- 
tion had been brought from India to Europe by Pythago 
ras. It presented the sun as the centre of the system. 
Around him the planets revolved in circular orbits, their 
order of position being Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mjrs, 
Jupiter, Saturn, each of them being supposed to rotate 
on its axis* as it revolved round the sun. According to 
Cicero, Nicetas suggested that, if it were admitted that 
the earth revolves on her axis, the difficulty presented 
by the inconceivable velocity of the heavens would be 
avoided. 

There is reason to believe that the works of Aris- 
tarchus, in the Alexandrian Library, were burnt at the 
time of the fire of Ccesar. The only treatise of his that 
lias come down to us is that above mentioned, on the 
size and distance of the sun and moon. 

Aristarchus adopted the Pythagorean system as repre- 
senting the actual facts. This was the result of a recog- 
nition of the sun’s amazing distance, and therefore of hU 
enormous size. The heliocentric system, thus regarding 
the sun as the central orb, degraded the earth to a very 
subordinate rank, making her only one of a company of 
six revolving bodies. 

But this is not the only contribution conferred on 
astronomy by Aristarchus, for, considering that the 
movement of the earth does not sensibly affect the ap 
parent position of tlio stars, lie inferred that they are 
incomparably more distant from us than the sun. He. 
therefore, of all the a*ncients, as Laplace remarks, had 
the most correct ideas of the gnmdeur of the universe. 
Ile'saw that the earth is of absolutely insignificant size, 
when compared with the stellar distances. Ho saw, too, 
that there is nothing above us but space and stars. 



THE PTOLEMAIO STSTEH. 


15T 


Birt tUe views of Aristarclius, as respects the em- 
placement of the planetary bodies, were not accepted 
by antiquity ; the system proposed by Ptolemy, and in- 
corporated in his “ Syntaxis,” was universally prefeired. 
The physicsil philosophy of those times was very im- 
jHJifect — one of Ptolemy’s objections to the Pytha 
jjorean system being that, if the earth were in motion, 
it would leave the air and other light bodies behind it. 
lie therefore placed the earth in the central position, 
and in succession revolved round her the Moon, Mer- 
cury, Venus, the Sun, Mare, Jupiter, Saturn ; beyond 
the orbit of Saturn came the firmament of the fixed 
stars. As to the solid crystalline spheres, one moving 
from east to west, the other from north to south, these 
were a fancy of Eudoxus, to which Ptolemy does not 
allnde. 

The Ptolemaic system is, therefore, essentially a geo- 
centric system. It left the earth in Iicr positio?i of su- 
l>(;riority, and hence gave no cause of umbrage to re- 
Iigii>u3 opinions, Christian or Mohaimncclan. The im- 
mense reputation of its author, the signal ability of his 
great work on the mechanism of the heavens, sustained 
it for almost fourteen hundred years — that is, from the 
M-eond to the sixteenth century. 

In Christendom, the greater part of this long period 
w.as consumed in disputes respecting the nature of God; 
ami in struggles for ecclesiastical power. The author- 
ity of the Fathers, and the prevailing belief that the 
Scriptures contain the sum of all knowledge, discour- 
aged any investigation of Nature. If by chance a pa^ 
ing interest Avas taken in some astronomical question, it 
was at once settled by a reference to such authoriti^ as 
the writings of Augustine or I.actantiu8, not by an ap- 
peal to the phenomena of the heavens. So great was 



158 SARACEN INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES. 


tlie preference given to sacred over profane leariiinfr, 
that Christianity had been in existence fifteen hundreJ 
years, and had not produced a single astronomer. 

The Mohammedan nations did much better. Their 
cultivation of science dates from the capture of Alexan- 
dria, A. D. 638. This was only six years after the deatli 
of tlie Prophet. In less than two centuries they liad 
not only become acquainted with, but correctly appreci- 
ated, the Greek scientific writers. As we have already 
mentioned, by his treaty with Michael III., the Klialif 
Al-Mamun had obtained a copy of the Syntaxis’’ of 
Ptolemy. lie had it forthwith translated into Arahit*. 
It became at once the great authority of Saracen astron- 
omy. From this basis the Saracens had advanced to tlie 
solution of some of the most important scientilic prob- 
lems. They had ascertained the dimensions of the cnrtli : 
tliey liad registered or catalogued all the stars visible in 
their heavens, giving to those of tlie larger niagnitu(h - 
the names they still boar on our maps and globes ; tlu v 
determined the true length of the year, discovered as- 
tronomical refraction, invented the pendiilinn-clock, 
improved the photometry of the stars, ascertained the 
curvilinear path of a ray of light through the air, ex- 
plained the phenomena of the horizontal sim and morm, 
and why we see those bodies before they have riven and 
after they have set ; measured the height of the atir.ns- 
phere, determining it to be lifty-eight miles ; given the 
true theory of the twilight, and of tlie twinkling of tlic 
stars. They had built the firet observatory in Euroj>c. 
So accurate w^re they in their observations, that the 
ablest incKlern mathematicians have made use of their 
results. Thus Laplace, in his “ Syst^me du Iklonde, ’ 
adduces the observations of Al-Batagni as affoi-ding in- 
contestable proof of the diminution of the eccentricity 



TUE THREE GREAT VOYAGES. 


159 


of thQ earth’s orbit. He uses those of Ibn-Junis in his 
discussion of the obliquity of the ecdiptie, and also in 
the case of the problems of the greater inequalities of 
Jupifcr and Saturn. 

These Represent but a part, and indeed but a small 
part, of the services rendered by the Arabian astrono- , 
mers, in the solution of the problem of the nature of 
the world. Meamvhile, such was the benighted con- 
dition of Christendom, such its deplorable ignorance, 
that it eared nothing about the matter. Its attention 
was engrossed by image-worship, transubstantiation, the 
merits of the saints, miracles, shrine-cures. 

This indifference continued until the close of the 
lirteenth century. Even then there was no scientitic 
inducement. The inciting motives were altogether of a 
different kind. They originated in commercial rival- 
ries, and the question of the shape of the earth was 
liiially settled by three sailors, Columbus, Do Gama, 
and, above all, by Ferdinand Magellan. 

The trade of Eastern Asia has always been a soun^o 
of iimneiise wealth to the Western nations who in siic- 
t'C.ssion have obtained it. In the middle ages it had 
<cntred in Upper Italy. It was conducted along two 
lines — a northern, by way of the Flack and Caspian Se:is, 
and canvel-caravans beyond — the headquarters of this 
were at Genoa; and a southeni, through the Syrian and 
hg}'ptian ports, and by the Arabian Sea, the headquar- 
ters of this being at Venice. The morel lants engaged 
hi the latter traffic had also made gn\at gains in the 
tiansjx)!! service of tlie Cru8a<le-\^ars. 

The Venetians had managed to maintain amicable 
t^elations with the Mohammedan powers of Syria And 
^"f?ypt; they were permitted to have consulates at Alex- 
andria and Damascus, and, notwithstanding the military 



160 


THE VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 


commotions of which those countries had been thcecene, 
the trade was still maintained in a comparatively flour- 
ishing condition. But the northern or Genoese lin§ had 
been completely broken up by the irruptions of the 
Tartars and the Turks, and the military and political dis- 
turbances of the countries through which it passed. The 
Eastern ti^e of Genoa was not merely in a precariou-! 
condition — it was on the brink of destruction. 

The circular visible horizon and its dip at sea, the 
gradual appearance and disappearance of ships in the 
offing, cannot fail to incline intelligent sailors to a be- 
lief in the globular figure of the earth. The writiiijr-i 
of the Mohammedan astronomers and philosophers had 
given currency to that doctrine throughout Western 
Europe, but, as might be c.vpected, it was received with 
disfavor by theologians. When Genoa was thus on the 
very brink of ruin, it occurred to some of her inarinei'? 
that, if this view were correct, her affairs might bo re- 
established. A ship sailing through the straits of (iib 
raltar westward, across the Atlantic, would not fail t'l 
reach the East Indies. There were apparently other 
great advantages. Heavy cargoes might be transported 
without tedious and expensive land-<;arriagc, and with- 
out breaking bulk. 

Among the Genoese sailors who entertained the.-e 
views W'as Christopher Columbus. 

He tells us that his attention w’as drawn to this sals 
ject by the writings of Averroes, but among his friend.< 
ho numbered Toscanelli, a Florentine, w'ho had turned 
l\is attention ‘to astronomy, and had become a stronj: 
advocate of the globular form. In Genoa itself Coliui!- 
bus* met with but little encouragement. lie then spent 
many years in trying to interest different princes in hi* 
proposed attempt Its irreligious tendency was pointed 



DISCOVERY OP AMERICA. 


101 


out by tbe Spanish ecclesiastics, and condemned by the 
Council of Salamanca ; its orthodoxy was confuted from 
the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Prophecies, the Gospels, 
the Epistles, and the writings of the Fathers— St. Chrys 
ostom, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory, St. Basil, 
St Ambrose. 

At length, however, encouraged by the Spanish 
Queen Isabella, and substantially aided by a wealthy 
seafaring family, the Pinzons of Palos, some of whom 
joined him personally, he sailed on August 3, 1492, 
with three small ships, from Palo.<», oirryiiig with him a 
letter from King Ferdinand to the Grand-Khan of Tar- 
tary, and also a chart, or map, construc ted on the biisi.s 
of that of Toscanelli. A little before midnight, October 
11, 1492, he saw from the forecastle of his ship a mov- 
ing light at a distance. Two houra subsecpicntly a sig- 
nal-gun from another of the ships announced that they 
had deseried land. At sunrise Columbus landed in tho 
New World. 

On his return to Europe it was universally supposed 
that he had reached the eastern parts of Asia, and tluit 
therefore his voyage had been theoretically 8ucccs.sful. 
Columbus himself died in that belief. But numerous 
voyages which were soon undertaken made known tho 
general, contour of tho American coast-line, and tho 
discovery of the Great South Sea by Balboa revealccl at 
length the true facts of tho case, and tho mistake into 
which both Toscanelli and Columbus had fallen, that in 
a voyage to tho West the distance from Euroi)o to Asia 
could not exceed tho distance passed over in a voya^ 
from Italy to the Gulf of Guinea — a voyage that Colum- 
bus liad repeatedly made. 

In his first voyage, at nightfall on September 13, 
1492, being then two and a half degrees c.a.st of Corvo, 

■M 



162 


THE YOTAQE OF DE GAMA. 


one of the Azores, Columbus observed that the cotr^ass- 
needles of the ships no longer pointed a little to the east 
of north, but were varying to the west. The deviation 
became more and more marked as the espedition* ad- 
vanced. He was not the first to detect the fact of 
variation, but he was incontestably the first to discover 
the line of no variation. On the retum-voyage the 
reverse wad observed; the variation westward dimin- 
ished until the meridian in question was reached, when 
the needles again pointed due north. Thence, as the 
coast of Europe was approached, the variation was to 
the east. Columbus, therefore, came to the conclusion 
that the line of no variation was a fixed geographical 
line, or boundary, between the Eastern and Western 
Hemispheres. In the bull of May, 1493, Pope Alexander 
VI. accordingly adopted this line as the perpetual boun- 
dary between the possessions of Spain and Portugal, in 
his settlement of the disputes of those nations. Subse- 
quently, however, it was discovered that the line was 
moving eastward. It coincided with the meridian of 
London in 1662. 

By the papal bull the Portuguese possessions were 
limited to the east of the line of no variation. Informa- 
tion derived from certain Egyptian Jews had reached 
that government, that it was possible to sail round the 
continent of Africa, there being at its extreme south a 
cape which could be easily doubled. An expedition of 
tluree ships under V.asco de Gama set sail, July 9, 1497 ; 
it doubled the capo on November 20th, and reached 
Calicut, on the jjoast of India, May 19, 1498. Under the 
bdll, this voyAge to the East gave to the Portuguese the 
right to the India trade. 

Until the cape was doubled, the course of Do Gama’s 
ships was in a general manner southward. Very 80on> 



THB DOUBLING OF THB CAPE. 


163 


it wap noticed that the elevation of the pole-star above 
the horizon was diminishing, and, soon after the equator 
was reached, that star had ceased to be visible. Mean- 
time other stars, some of them forming magnificent 
constellations, had come into view — the stars of tlio 
Southern Hemisphere. All this was in conformity to 
theoretical expectations founded on the admission of the 
globular form of the earth. 

The political consequences that at once ensued placed 
the Papal Government in a position of great embarrass- 
ment. Its traditions and policy forbade it to admit 
any other than the flat figure of the earth, as revealed 
in the Scriptures. Concealment of the facts was im- 
]>ossible, sophistry was unavailing. Commercial pros- 
])erity now left Venice as well as Genoa. The front of 
Europe was changed. Maritime power had departed 
from the Mediterranean countries, and passed to tliose 
upon the Atlantic coast. 

Jlut the Spanish Govemment did not submit to tlio 
advantage thus gained by its commercial rival Mithout 
an effort. It listened to the representations of one 
Ferdinand Magellan, that India and the Spice Islands 
could be reached by sailing to tlic west, if only a strait 
or passage through what had now been recognized os 
“ the American Continent could be discovered ; and, if 
this should be accomplished, Spain, under the papal 
hull, would have as good a right to the India trade as 
Portugal. Under the command of Magellan, an ex 
I>edition of five ships, carrying two hundred and thirty- 
‘^ven men, was dispatched from Seville, August 10, 
1519. 

Magellan at once stnick boldly for the South Amcr- 
coast, hoping to find some cleft or passage through 
the continent by which he niiglit reach the great South 



164 


THE VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN. 


Sea. For seventy days he was becalmed on the line; 
his sailors were appalled by the apprehension that tliey 
had drifted into a region where the winds never blew, 
and tliat it was impossible for them to escape. Calms, 
tempests, mutiny, desertion, could not shake bis resolu- 
tion. After more than a year he discovered the strait 
which now bears his name, and, as Pigafetti, an Italian, 
who was with him, relates, he shed tears of joy when ho 
found that it had pleased God at length to bring him 
where he might grapple with the unknown dangera of 
the South Sea, “ the Great and Pacific Ocean.” 

Driven by famine to eat scraps of skin and leather 
with which his rigging was here and there bound, to 
drink water that had gone putrid, his crew dying of 
hunger and scurvy, this man, firm in his belief of the 
globular figure of the earth, steered steadily to the north- 
west, and for nearly four months never saw inhabited 
land. lie estimated that ho had sailed over the Pacilie 
not less than twelve thousand miles. He crossed the 
eciuator, saw once more the pole-star, and at length 
made land — the Ladrones. Here he met with adven- 
turers from Sumatra. Among these islands he was 
killed, either by the savages or by his own men. Ills 
lieutenant, Sebastian d’Elcano, now took command of the 
ship, directing her course for the Cape of Good Hope, 
and encountering frightful hardships. He doubled the 
cape at last, and then for the fourth time crossed the 
equator. On September Y, 1522, after a voyage of 
more than three years, he brought his ship, the San Vit- 
toria, to anchqjr in the port of St. Lucar, near Seville. 
Slie had accomplished the greatest achievement in the 
history of the human race. She had circumnavigated 
tl>o earth. 

The San Vittoria, sailing wc-stward, had come bac’j 



THE SIZE OP TOE EARTE. 


165 


to ber starting-point. Henceforth the theological doc- 
trine of the flatness of the earth was iiretrievably over- 
thrown. 

Five years after the completion of the voyage of 
Slagellafl, was made the first attempt in Christendom 
to ascertain the size of the earth. This was by Fernel, 
a French ph 3 ’ 8 ician, who, having observed the height of 
the pole at Paris, went thence northward until he came 
to a place where the height of the pole was exactly one 
degree more than at that city, lie measured the dis- 
tance between the two stations by the number of revo- 
lutions of one of the wheels of his carriage, to which a 
proper indicator had been attached, and came to the 
conclusion that the earth’s circumference is iil)out twen- 
ty-four thousand four hundred and eighty Italian miles. 

Measures executed more and more carefully were 
made in many countries: by Snell in Holland; by Nor- 
wood between London and York in England ; by Picanl, 
under the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, 
in France. Picard’s plan was to connect two ])uints by 
a series of triangles, and, thus ascertaining the length of 
the are of a meridian intercepted between them, to com- 
pare it with the dilfcrence of latitudes found from celes- 
tial observations. The stations were Malvoisinc in the 
vicinity of Paris, and Sourdon near Amiens. The dif- 
ference of latitudes was determined by observing the 
zenith-distances of S Cassi«jpcia. There are two ]>oints 
of interest connected M’ith Picard’s operation : it was the 
first in which instruments furnished with telcscoiHJs were 
employed ; and its result, as w<5 shall shortly see, was to 
Newton the first confirmation of the theory of univeVsal 
gravitation. 

At this time it liad liccomc clear from mechanical 
considerations, more especially such as had been deduced 



166 


THE SIZE OF TUE EARTH. 


by Newton, that, since the earth is a rotating body, hei 
form cannot be that of a perfect sphere, but must be 
that of a spheroid, oblate or fattened at the poles. It 
would follow, from this, that the length of a de^e 
must be greater near the poles than at the equator. 

The French Academy resolved to extend Picardis 
operation, by prolonging the measures in each direction, 
and making' the result the basis of a more accurate map 
of France. Delays, however, took place, and it was not 
until 1718 that the measures, from Dunkirk on the 
north to the southern extremity of France, were com- 
pleted. A discussion arose as to the interpretation of 
these measures, some affirming that they indicated a 
prolate, others an oblate spheroid; the former figure 
may be popularly represented by a lemon, the latter by 
an orange. To settle this, the French Government, aided 
by the Academy, sent out two expeditions to measure 
degrees of the meridian — one under the equator, the 
other as far north as possible ; the former went to Peni, 
the latter to Swedish Lapland. Very great difficulties 
wore encountered by both parties. The Lapland com- 
mission, however, completed its observations long be- 
fore the Peruvian, which consumed not less than nine 
years. The results of the measures thus obtained con- 
firmed the theoretical expectation of the oblate 'fonn. 
Since that time many extensive and exact repetitions of 
the observation have been made, among which may be 
mentioned those of the English in England and in India, 
and particularly that of the French on the occasion of 
the iutroductioi^ of the ‘metric system of weights and 
measures. It was begjui by Delambro and Mechain, 
from Dunkirk to Barcelona, and thence extended, by 
Biot and Arago, to the island of Formentera near ]£- 
norca. Its length was nearly twelve and a half degrees. 



COPERNICUS. 


167 


Besides this method of direct measurement, the fig- 
ure’ of the earth may be determined from the observed 
number of osciUations made by a pendulum of invariable 
length in different latitudes. These, though they con- 
firm the foregoing results, give a somewhat greater 
ellipticity to the earth than that found by the measure- 
ment of degrees. Pendulums vibrate morp slowly the 
nearer they are to the equator. It follows, therefore, 
tliat they are there farther from the eentre of the earth. 

From the most reliable measures that have been 
made, the dimensions of the earth may be tlms stated : 


Greater or equatorial diameter 7,925 miles. 

Less or polar diameter 7,899 “ 

Difference or polar compression 20 “ 


Such was the result of the discussion respecting tho 
tigure and size of the earth. Wliile it ^vas yet undeter- 
mined, another controversy arose, fraught with even 
more serious consequences. This was the conflict re- 
specting the earth’s position with regard to the sun and 
the planetary bodies, 

Copernicus, a Prussian, about tho year 1507, had 
completed a book “ On the Kevolutions of the Heavenly 
Ilodics/’ lie had journeyed to Italy in his youth, had 
devoted his attention to astronomy, and had taught 
mathematics at Rome. From a prof*>und study of tho 
Ptolemaic and Pythagorean systems, he had ciomo to a 
conclusion in favor of tlio latter, the object of his l>ook 
l>cing to sustain it. Aware that liis doctrines were 
totally opposed to revealed trutli, and •foreseeing tliat 
would bring upon him the punishments of tho 
Cliurch, he expressed himself in a cautious and ajmlo- 
f^tic manner, saying that he had only takert the liberty 
of tiring whether, on the supposition of tlie earth’s 



168 


THE BOOK OP COPERNICUS. 


motion, it was possible to find better explanations* than 
the ancient ones of the revolutions of the celestial orbs; 
that in dc j:g this he had only taken the privilege 4;hat 
had been allowed to others, of feigning what hypothesis 
they chose. The preface was addressed to- Pope Paul 
HI. 

Full of piisgivings as to what might be the result, he 
refrained from publishing his book for thirty-six years, 
thinking that “perhaps it might be better to follow the 
examples of the Pythagoreans and others, who delivered 
their doctrine only by tradition and to friends.” At 
the entreaty of Cardinal Scliomberg he at length pub- 
lished it in 1543. A copy of it was brought to him on 
his death-bed. Its fate was such as he had anticipated. 
The Inquisition condemned it as heretical. In their de- 
cree, prohibiting it, the Congregation of the Index de- 
nounced his system as “ that false Pythagorean doctrine 
utterly contrary to the Holy Scriptures.” 

Astronomers justly alHrm that the book of Coperni- 
cus, “ l)o llevolutionibus,” changed tlie face of their 
science. It incontestably established the lielioccntric 
theory. It showed that the distance of the fixed stars 
is infinitely great, and that the earth is a mere point 
in the heavens. Anticipating Newton, Copernicus im- 
puted gravity to the sun, the moon, and heavenly 
bodies, but he was led astray by assuming that the celes- 
tial motions must be circular. Observations on the 
orbit of Mars, and his difierent diamctei*s at diflerent 
times, liad led Copernicus to his theory. 

^ In thus debouncing the Copernican system as being 
in contradiction to revelation, the ecclesiastical authori- 
ties were doubtless deeply moved by inferential consid- 
erations. To dethi*one the earth from her central 
dominating position, to give her many equals and not a 



INVENTION OF TOE TELESCOPE. 


169 


few sliperiors, seemed to diminish her claims upon the 
Divine regard. If each of the countless myriads of 
stars was a sun, surrounded by revolving globes, peo- 
pled with responsible beings like ourselves, if we had 
fallen so easily and had been redeemed at so stupendous 
a price as the death of the Son of God, how was it with 
them ? Of them were there none who had fallen or 
might fall like us i Where, then, for them could a 
Savior be found i 

During the year 1608 one Lipperslicy, a Hollander, 
discovered that, by looking through two glass lenses, 
combined in a certain manner together, distant objects 
were magnified and rendered very plain, lie had in- 
vented the telescope. In the following year Galileo, a 
Florentine, greatly distinguished by his mathematical 
and scientific writings, hearing of the circumstance, but 
without knowing the particulars of the construction, 
invented a form of the instrument for himself. Im- 
proving it gradually, he succeeded in making one that 
could magnify thirty times. Examining the moon, ho 
found that she had valleys like those of the earth, and 
inountains casting shadows. It had been said in the 
old times that in the Dleiades there w'ere formerly seven 
stars, but a legend related that one of them had mysteri- 
ously disappeared. On turning his telescope toward 
them, Galileo found that lie could easily count not fewer 
than forty. In whatever direction he looked, he dis- 
covered stars that were totally invisible to the naked 
eye. 

On the night of January 7, 1610, he perceived three 
^mall stars in a straight line, adjacent to the planet 
Jupiter, and, a few evenings later, a fourth. He fbimd 
that these were revolving in orbits round Ihe body of 
the planet, and, with transport, recognized that they 



170 


DISCOVERIES OP GALILEO. 


presented a miniature representation of the Copehiican 
system. 

The announcement of these wonders at once attracted 
universal attention. The spiritual authorities were not 
slow to detect their tendency, as endangering the doc- 
trine that the universe was made for man. In the cre- 
ation of myriads of stars, hitherto invisible, there must 
surely have been some other motive than that of illmni- 
nating the nights for him. 

It had been objected to the Copemican theoiy that, 
if the planets Mercury and Venus move round the sun 
in orbits interior to that of the earth, they ought to 
show phases like those of the moon ; and that in the 
case of 'Venus, which is so brilliant and conspicuous, 
these phases should be very obvious. Copernicus him- 
self had admitted the force of the objection, and had 
vainly tried to find an explanation. Galileo, on turning 
his telescope to the planet, discovered that the expected 
phases actually exist ; now she was a crescent, then 
half-moon, then gibbous, then full. Previously to 
Copernicus, it was supposed that the planets shine by 
their own light, but the phases of Venus and Mars 
proved that Hheir light is reflected. The Aristotelian 
notion, that celestial differ from terrestrial bodies in 
being incorruptible, received a rude shock from‘the dis- 
coveries of Galileo, that there are mountains and val- 
leys in the moon like those of the earth, that the sun is 
not perfect, but has spots on his face, and that he turns 
on his axis instead of being in a state of majestic rest. 
TJie appaiitioit of new stars had already thrown serious 
doubts on this theory of incorruptibility. 

I'hese and many other beautiful telescopic discov- 
eries tended to the establishment of the truth of the 
Copemican theory, and gave unbounded alarm to the 



PUNISHMENT OP GALILEO. 


171 


Churcli- By the low and ignorant ecclesiastics they 
were 'denounced as deceptions or frauds. Some affirmed 
that the telescope might be relied on well enough for 
terrestrial pbjects, but with the heavenly bodies it was 
altogether a different affair. Others declared that its 
invention was a mere application of Aristotle’s remark 
that stars could be seen in the daytime from the bot- 
tom of a deep well. Galileo was accused of imposture, 
heresy, bla^hemy, atheism. With a view of defend 
ing himself, he addressed a letter to the Abbe Castelli, 
su^esting that the Scriptures were never intended to 
be a scientific authority, but only a moral guide. This 
made matters worse. He was summoned before the 
Holy Inquisition, under an accusation of having taught 
that the earth moves round the sun, a doctrine “ utterly 
contrary to the Scriptures.” lie was ordered to re- 
nounce that heresy, on pain of being imprisoned. He 
was directed to desist from teaching and advocating the 
(’opernican theory, and pledge himself that he would 
neither publish nor defend it for the future. Know- 
ing well that Truth has no need of ntartyrs, he assented 
to the required recantation, and gave the promise de- 
manded. 

For sixteen years the Church had rest. But in 1632 
Calileo ventured on the publication of his work entitled 
“Tlie System of the World,” its object being the vindi- 
cation of the Copemican doctrine. He was again sum* 
nioncd before the Inquisition at Borne, accused of hav- 
ing asserted that the earth moves, round the sun. He 
'vas declared to have brought upon himsdifc the penal-, 
tics of heresy. On his knees, with his hand on the 
Bible, he was compelled to abjure and curse the doc- 
trine of the movement of the earth. Wliat a spectacle I 
This venerable man, the most illustrious of his age. 



172 


PUNISHMENT OP GALILEO. 


forced by the threat of death to deny facts which lug 
judges as well as himself knew to be true! lie was 
then committed to prison, treated with remorseless 
severity during the remaining ten years of his lih*, 
and was denied burial in consecrated ground. Must 
not that be false which requires for its support so nnicli 
imposture, so much barbarity ? The opinions thus de- 
fended by the Inquisition are now objects of derision 
to the whole civilized world. 

One of the greatest of modern mathematicians, refer- 
ring to this subject, says that the point here contested 1 
was one w'hicli is for mankind of the highest intere.-t, 
because of the rank it assigns to the globe that we in- 
habit. If the earth be immovable in the midst of tliu 
universe, man has a right to regard himself as the prin 
cipal object of the care of Nature. But if the earth lx 
only one of the planets revolving round the sim, an in- 
signiticant body in the solar system, she will disappear 
entirely in the immensity of the heavens, in which tin- 
system, vast as it may appear to us, is nothing but an 
insensible point. 

The triumphant establishment of the Copc'riiican 
doctrine dates from the invention of the telcse*<^jH‘. 
Soon there was not to be found in all Europe an astruii 
omer who had not accepted the heliocentric theory witu 
its essential postulate, the double motion of the earth— 
a movement of rotation on her axis, and a movement d 
revolution round the sun. If additional proof of the 
latter were needed, it was furnished by Bradley’s gre.‘* 
Aiiscovery of \he aberration of the fixed stars, an aberr.^ 
tiqii depending partly on the progressive motion of light- 
and partly on the revolution of the earth. Bradley ? 
discovery ranked in importance with that of the prece?' 
sion of the equinoxes. Koemer’s discovery of the pr^ 



distance of the Earth from the sun. 17;] 


.rivsiiive motion of liglit, tlioiigli denounced by Foii- 
tciielle as a seductive error, and not admitted by Cas- 
at length forced its way to universiil acceptance. 

Next it was necessary to obtain correct ideas of tlio 
diiyensions of the solar system, or, putting the problem 
under a more limited form, to determine the distance 
of the earth from the sun. 

In the time of Copernicus it was supposed that the 
jiun’s distance could not exceed five million miles, and 
indeed there were many who thought that estimate very 
extravagant. From a review of the observations of 
Tycho Brahe, Kepler, however, concluded that the error 
was actually in the opposite direction, and that the esti- 
mate must bo raised to at least tliirteen million. In 
1670 Ciissini showed that these numbers were alto 
pether inconsistent with the facts, and gave as his con 
elusion eighty-live million. 

The transit of Venus over the face of the sun, dune 
•», 1769, had been foreseen, and its great value in the 
Mdiition of this fundamental problem in astronomy 
appreciated. With commendalde alacrity various gov- 
ernments contributed their assistance in making o1>ser- 
'ations, so that in Europe there were fifty stations, in 
Asia si^, in America seventeen. It was for this pur 
}wc that the English Govcniment diRi>atcluMl Captain 
Cook on his celebrated first voyage, lie went to Ota- 
h(‘ite. Ills voyage was crowned with success. The sun 
roK! without a cloud, and the sky continued ecpially clear 
tkroughout the day. The transit.at ( ’ocjk’s station lasted 
from about half-past nine in tlic morning until al>out 
li^ilf-past three in the afternoon, and all the observations 
'^’cre made in a satisfactory manner. 

But, on the discussion of the observations made at 
the different stations, it was found that there was not 



174 


DIMENSIONS OF THE SOLAS SYSTEM. 


the accordance that could hare been desired — the<result 
varying from eighty-eight to one hundred and nine 
million. The celebrated mathematician, Encke, there- 
fore reviewed them in 1822—24, and came to the con- 
clusion that the sun’s horizontal parallax, that is, tlic 
angle under which the semi-diameter of the cartli,is 
seen from the sun, ‘is seconds ; this gave as the 

distance 95,274,000 miles. Subsequently tlie observa- 
tions were reconsidered by Hansen, who gave as their 
result 91,659,000 miles. Still later, Leverrier made it 
91,759,000. Airy and Stone, by another method, made 
it 91,400,000; Stone alone, by a revision of the old obser- 
vations, 91,730,000; and finally, Foucault and Fizcau. 
from physical experiments, determining the velocity of 
light, and therefore in their nature altogether differin;,' 
from transit observations, 91,400,000, Until the results 
of the transit of next year (1874) are ascertained, it must 
therefore be admitted that the distance of the earth from 
the sun is somewhat less tlian ninety-two million miles. 

This distance once determined, the dimensions of the 
solar system may be ascertained with ease and precision. 
It is enough to mention that the distance of Neptune 
from the sun, the most remote of the planets at present 
known, is about thirty times that of the earth. 

By the aid of these numbers we may begin .to gain 
a just appreciation of the doctrine of the human destiny 
of the universe — the doctrine that all things were made 
for man. Seen from the sun, the earth dwindles away 
to a mere speck, a mere dust-mote glistening in his 
beams. If the reader ‘wishes a more precise valuation, 
let him hold* a page of this book a couple of feet from 
his eye ; then let him consider one of its dots or full- 
stops ; that dot is several hundred times larger in sn^ 
fruse than is the earth as seen from the sun! 



DISTANCES OF TOE STARa 


175 


Oi what consequence, then, can such an almost im- 
perceptible particle be ? One might think that it could 
bo removed or even annihilated, and yet never be missed. 
Of what consequence is one of those human monads, of 
whom more than a thousand millions swarm on the sur- 
face of this all but invisible speck, and of a million of 
whom scarcely one will leave a tratee that ho has ever 
existed ? Of what consequence is man, his pleasures or 
his pains? 

Among the arguments brought forward against the 
Copernican system at the time of its promulgation, was 
one by the great Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, origi- 
nally urged by Aristarchus jigainst the Pythagorean 
system, to the effect that, if, as was alleged, the earth 
moves round the sun, there ought to be a change of tho 
direction in which tho fixed stars appear. At one time 
we are nearer to a particular region of tho heavens by a 
distance equal to tho whole diameter of tho earth’s orbit 
than wo were six months previously, and hence there 
ought to bo a change in the relative position of tho 
stars; they should seem to sepamto as we approach 
them, and to close together as wc recede from them ; 
or, to use the astronomical expression, these stars should 
liavo a yearly parallax. 

The parallax of a star is tho angle contained between 
two lines drawn from it — one to tho sun, the other to 
the earth. 

At tliat time, the earth’s distance from tho sun was 
greatly under^istimated. Had it been known, as it is 
•low, that that distance exceeds nmety million miles, or 
that the diameter of the orbit is more than one hundred 
and eighty million, that argument would doubtless have 
had very great weight. 

In reply to Tycho, it was said that, since the paral- 



176 


DISTANCES OF THE STARS. 


lax of a body diminishes as its distance increases, a stu 
may be so far ofE that its parallax may be imperceptible. 
This answer proved to be correct. The detection of the 
parallax of the stars depended on the improvement of 
instruments for the measurement of angles. * 

The parallax of a Centauri, a fine double star of 
Southern Hemisphere, at present considered to be the 
nearest of the fixed stars, was first determined by Hen- 
derson and Maclear at the Cape of Good Hope In 
1832-’33. It is about nine-tenths of a second. Hence 
this star is almost two hundred and thirty thousand 
times as far frotn us as the sun. Seen from it, if the 
sun were even large enough to fill the whole orbit of 
the earth, or one hundred and eighty million miles in 
diameter, he would be a mere point. With its com- 
panion, it revolves round their common centre of gra\- 
ity in eighty-one years, and hence it would seem tlial 
their conjoint mass is less than that of the sun. 

The star 61 Cygni is of the sixth magnitude. Its 
parallax was first found by Bessel in 1838, and is about 
one-third of a second. The distance from us is, there- 
fore, much more than five hundred thousand times that 
of the sun. With its companion, it revolves round their 
common centre of granty in five hundred and twenK 
years. Their conjoint weight is about one-third that of 
the sun. 

There is reason to believe that the great star Sirius, 
the brightest in the heavens, is about six times as far off 
as a Centauri. ITis probable diameter is twelve million 
miles, and tliQ light hn emits two hundred times more 
Hrilliant than that of the sun. Yet, even through the 
teleocopc, he has no measurable diameter; he looks 
merely like a very bright spark. 

The stars, then, differ not merely in visible magu> 



BRUKO. 


177 


tnde,*but also in actual size. As the spectroscope shows, 
they differ greatly in chemical and physical constitution. 
That instrument is also revealing to us the duration of 
the life of a star, through changes in the refrangibility 
of the emitted light. Though, as we have seen, the near- 
est to us is at an enormous and all but immeasurable dis- 
tance, this is but the iirat step — there are others the rays 
of which have taken thousands, perhaps millions, of years 
to reach us ! The limits of our own system are far be- 
yond the range of our greatest telescopes ; what, tlicn, 
shall wo say of other systems beyond ? Worlds are scat- 
tered like dust in the abysses in space. 

Have these gigantic bodies — myriads of which are 
placed at so vast a distance that our unassisted eyes can- 
not perceive them — ^liave these no other purpose than 
that assigned by theologians, to give light to us ? Does 
not their enormous size dcmonstnito that, as they are 
centres of force, so they must be centres of motion — 
suns for other systems of worlds ? 

While yet these facts were very imperfectly known 
—indeed, were rather speculations than facts — Giordano 
Bruno, an Italian, born seven years after the death of 
Copernicus, published a work on the “ Infinity of the 
Cniverse apd of AVorlds;” ho Avas also the author of 
“Evening Conversations on Ash-Wetlnesday,” an ajwl- 
ogy for the Copeniican system, and of “ The One Sole 
Cause of Things.” To these may be added an allegory 
published in 1584, “ The Expulsion of the Triumphant 
Beast.” He liad also collected, for the use of future as- 
tronomers, all the observations lie could 4ijid respecting 
the new star that suddenly appeared in CassiojAcia, a. i>- 
1572, and increased in brilliancy, until it snrpassdil all 
the other stars. It could be plainly seen in the day- 
time. On a sudden, November 11th, it was as bri^it 

M 



178 


BR0NO. 


as Yenus at her brightest. Lx the following March it 
was of the first magnitude. It exhibited various Hues 
of color in a few months, and disappeared in MVch 
1574. 

The star that suddenly appeared in Serpentarius, in 
Kepler’s time (1604), was at first brighter than Venus. 
It lasted m^re than a year, and, passing through various 
tints of purple, yellow, red, became extinguished. 

Originally, Bruno was intended for the Church. He 
had become a Dominican, but was led into doubt by his 
meditations on the -subjects of transubstantiation and 
the immaculate conception. Not caring to conceal his 
opinions, he soon fell under the censure of the spiritual 
authorities, and found it necessary to seek refuge suc- 
cessively in Switzerland, France, England, Germany. 
The cold-scented sleuth-hounds of the Inquisition fol- 
lowed his track remorselessly, and eventually hunted 
him back to Italy. He was arrested in Venice, and 
confined in the Piombi for six years, without books, or 
paper, or friends. 

In England ho liad given lectures on the plurality 
of worlds, and in that country had written, in Italian, 
his most important works. It added not a little to the 
exasperation against him, that ho w.as perpetually de- 
claiming against the insincerity, the imposture^, of his 
persecutors — that wherever he vrent he found skepti- 
cism varnished over and concealed by hypocrisy ; and 
that it was not against the belief of men, but against 
their pretended belief, that ho was fighting ; tlxat ho 
wjis stmgglixxg with an orthodoxy that had neither 
morality nor faith. 

In his ‘‘Evening Conversations” he had insisted 
that the Scriptures were never intended to teach science, 
but morals only ; and that they cannot be received as of 



SCIENTIFIC IDEAS OF BRUNO. 


179 


any •authority on astronomical and physical subjects. 
Esj^'ially must wo reject the view they reveal to us ol 
the.oonstitution of the world, that the earth is a flat sur- 
face, supported on pillars ; that the sky is a tirmament — 
the floor of heaven. On the contraiy, we must believe 
that the universe is infinite, and. that it is filled with 
self-luminous and opaque worlds, many o£ tliem in- 
habited ; that there is nothing above and around us but 
space and stars. His meditations on these subjects liad 
brought him to the conclusion that tlie views of Aver- 
roes are not far from the truth — that there is an Intel- 
lect wliich animates tlie universe, and of this Intellect 
the visible w'orld is only an emanation or manifestation, 
originated and sustained by force derived from it, and, 
were that force withdrawn, all things would disaj)pear. 
This ever-present, all-pervading Intellect is God, wlio 
lives in all tilings, even such as seem not to live ; tliat 
evciy thing is midy to become organiml, to burst into 
life. Qod is, therefore, ‘‘tlie One Solo ('auso of 
Things,” “the All in All.” 

llruno may hence be considered aiiiong j>hilo.so|)hical 
writers as intermediate between Averroes and Spinoza. 
Hie latter held that God and the IJnivci*so are the same, 
that all events happen by an immutable law of Nature, 
by an unconquerable necessity ; that God is the Uni- 
verse, producing a series of necc.‘^s;iry movements or 
acts, in consequence of intrinsic, unchangeable, and ir- 
**^i8tible energy. 

On the demand of the spirifual authorities, Bnino 
was removed from Venice to Rome, and confined in the 
prison of the Inquisition, accused not only of bciQg ft 
heretic, but also a heresiarch, who had written things 
unseemly concerning religion ; the special charge against 
him being that he had taught the plurality of worlds, a 



180 


THE MUBDEB OF BRUNO. 


doctiine repugnant to the whole tenor of Scripture and' 
inimical to revealed religion, especially as regards the 
plan of salvation. After an imprisonment of two years 
he was brought before his judges, declared guUty of the 
acts alleged, excommunicated, and, on his nobly refusing 
to recant, was delivered over to the secular authoritifes 
to be punished “ as mercifully as possible, and without 
the shedding of his blood,” the horrible formula for 
burning a prisoner at the stake. Knowing well that 
though his tormentors might destroy his body, his 
thoughts would still live among men, he said to his 
judges, “ Perhaps it is with greater fear that you pas> 
the sentence upon me than I receive it.” The sentence 
was carried into effect, and he was burnt at Koine, 
February 16th, a. d. 1600. 

No one can recall without sentiments of pity the 
sufferings of those countless martyra, who first by one 
party, and then by another, have been brought for their 
religious opinions to the stake. But each of these had 
in his supreme moment a powerful and unfailing sup- 
port. The passage from this life to the next, though 
through a hard trial, was the passage from a transient 
trouble to eternal happiness, an escape from the cruelty 
of earth to the charity of heaven. On his way through 
the dark valley the martyr believed that there’ was an 
invisible hand that would lead him, a friend that would 
guide him all the more gently and firmly because of the 
terrors of the fiaincs. For Bnmo there was no such 
support. The philosophical opinions, for the sake of 
which he swfrendered his life, could give him no con- 
solation. lie must fight the last fight alone. Is tlicro 
not something very grand in the attitude of this solitary 
man, something which hiunan nature cannot help ad- 
miring, as he stands in the gloomy hall before his incs* 



MURDEK OF BRUNO. 


181 


orable judges? No accuser, no witness, no advocate is 
present, but the familiars of the Holy Office, clad in 
black, are stealthily moving about. The tormentors and 
the* rack are in the vaults below. He is simply told 
that he tas brought upon himself strong suspicions of 
Ijeresy, since he has said that there are other worlds than 
ours. He is asked if he will recant and abjure his error. 
He cannot and will not deny what he knows to be true, 
and perhaps — ^for ho had often done so before — ho tells 
Ills judges that they, too, in their hearts arc of the same 
holief. What a contrast between this scene of manly 
honor, of unshaken firmness, of inflexible adherence to 
tlie truth, and that other scene which took place more 
than fifteen centuries previously by the fireside in the 
hall of Caiaphas the high-priest, when the cock crow, 
and “ the Lord turned and looked upon Peter ” (Luke 
xxii. 01)! And yet it is upon Peter that the Church 
has grounded her right to act as she did to Hruno. 

Hut perhaps the day approaches when ])osterity will 
ulTor an expiation for this great ecclesiastical crime, and 
a statue of Hruno be unveiled under the dome of St. 
Peter's at Koine. 



CHAPTEE Vn. 


CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE AGE OP THE EARTH. 


Beriptural view (hat the Earth ie only six thmeand years old^ and that it 
was made in a week. — Fatruiic chronology founded on the ages of the 
patriarchs. — Difficulties arising from different estimates in different 
versions of the Bible. 

Legend of the Deluge. — Tlie repcopling. — The Tower of Babd ; the cotr 
fusion of tongues. — The primitive language. 

Discovery by Cassini of the oblatcness of the planet Jupiter. — Discovery hy 
Newton of the ohlaiencss of the Earth. — Deduction that she has bet n 
modeled by mechanical causes. — Confrmation of this by geological 
discoveries respecting aqueous rocks; corroboration by organic re- 
mains. — The necessity of admitting cnonnously long periods of time. 
— Displacenietit of the doctrine of Creation hy that of Evolution- 
Discoveries respecting the Antiquity of Man. 

The lime-scale and spacc-scalc of the world are injinite.— Moderation with 
which the discussion of the Age of the World has been conducted. 


The true position of the earth in tlie universe was 
estjiblishcd only after a long and severe conflict. The 
Church used w'hatever pow’er she had, even to the in- 
fliction of death, for sustaining her ideas. But it was 
in vain. The evidence in behalf of the Copemicaii 
theory became irresistible. It was at length universally 
admitted that •tlio sun is the centml, the ruling body 
of our« system ; the earth only one, and by no means the 
largest, of a family of encircling planets. 

Taught by the issue of that dispute, when the ques- 



AGE OF THE EARTH. 


ISd 

\tion of the age of the world presented itself for con- 
sidiiration, the Church did not exhibit the active resist- 
ance she had displayed on the former occasion. For, 
though her traditions were again put in jeopardy, they 
were nof, in her judgment, so vitally assailed. To de- 
throne the Earth from her dominating position was, so 
the spiritual authorities declared, to undermine the veiy 
foun^tion of revealed truth ; but discussioils respecting 
the date of creation might w’ithiu certain limits be per- 
mitted. Those limits were, however, very quickly over- 
pa-ssed, and thus the controvemy became as dangerous as 
the former one had been. 

It was not possible to adopt the advice given by 
Plato in his “ Timaius,” when treating of this subject— 
the origin of the universe : “ It is proper that both I 
who speak and you who judge should remember that 
we are but men. and therefore, receiving the probablo 
mythological tradition, it is meet that wo inquire no 
further into it.” Since the time of St. Augustine the 
Scriptures had been made the great and final authority 
in all matters of science, and theologians had deduced 
from them schemes of chronology and coMnogony which 
liad proved to be stumbling-blocks to the advance of 
real knowledge. 

It "is not necessary for us to do more than to allude 
to some of the leading features of the.s(! schemes ; their 
peculiarities will be ea.sily discerned with sullieient clear- 
ness. Thus, fi’om the six days of creation and the Sab- 
l>atli-day of rest, since wc arc told that a day is with the 
Lord as a thousand years, it wils inferred that the dura- 
tion of the world will l>e through six thousand ycarS of 
stiflfering, and an additional thousand, a millemiMim of 
rest. It was generally admitted that the earth was 
about four tliousand years old at the birth of Christ, 



ISi 


PATRISTIC CHROXOLOGY. 


l3ut, SO careless had Europe been in the study of its 
annuls, that not until a. d. 527 had it a proper chronol- 
ogy of its own. A Eoman abbot, Dionysius Exi^uis, 
or Dennis the Less, then fixed the vulgar era, and gave 
Europe its present Christian chronology. * 

The method followed in obtaining the earliest cIibo- 
nological dates was by computations, mainly founded 
on the lives of the patriarchs. Much difficulty was en- 
countered in reconciling numerical discrepancies. Even 
if, as was taken for granted in those uncritical ages, 
Moses was the author of the books imputed to him, due 
weight was not given to the fact that he related events, 
many of which took place more than two thousand years 
before he was born. It scarcely seemed necessary to 
regard the Pentateuch as of plenary inspiration, since m 
means had been provided to perpetuate its corre(‘tne>s. 
The different copies which had escaped the chance- 
of time varied very much ; thus the Samaritan made 
thirteen hundred and seven years from the Creation 
to tlie Deluge, the Hebrew sixteen hundred and lift v- 
six, the Septuagint twenty-two hundred and sixty- 
three. The Septuagint counted fifteen hundred years 
more from the Creation to Abraham than the Hebrew. 
In general, however, there xvas an inclination to the 
supposition that tlie Deluge took place about two thou 
sand years after the f Veation, and, after another interval 
of two thousand years, Christ was bom. Persons who 
had given much attention to the subject affirmed thar 
tliei’e were not less than one hundred and thirty-tw«» 
tlitfcrent opinums as to the year in which the Messiah 
appeared, and hence they declared that it was inexpedi- 
ent to press for acceptance the Scriptural numbers to<» 
closely, since it was plain, from the great differences in 
different copies, that there had been no providential 



PATRISTIC CHRONOLOGY. 


1S5 


\|itorvention to perpetuate a correct reading, nor was 
tlier^ any mark by which men could be guided to the 
only authentic version. Even those held in the highest 
esteem contained undeniable errors. Thus the Septua- 
giiit made^Methuselah live until after the Deluge. 

lit was thought that, in the antediluvian world, the 
ve:ir consisted of three hundred and sixty davs. Some 
even aflSnned that this was the origin of tlie division 
of the circle into three hundred and sixty degrees. At 
the time of the Deluge, so many theologians declared, 
the motion of the sun was altered, and the year Inrame 
five days and six hours longer. There was a prevalent 
oiiinion that that stupendous event occurred on Xovem- 
l>er 2d, in the year of the world 1G5G. ])r. Whiston, 

however, disposed to greater jn-ecision, imh’ned to post- 
pone it to Kovember 2Sth. Sonn^ thought that the 
rainbow wa.s not seen until Jifler tin* Hood; others, ap- 
jKirently with l>etter reason, inferred that it wjus then 
lirst established as a sign. On coining forth from the 
ark, men received permission to ns(i Ihsh as fo(Kl, tin; 
antediluvians having been herbivorous ! It would 
.“Ccin that the Deluge had not (M’casionc*(l anv gr(\at 
;:cographical changes, for Xoali, relying (m bis anteililu- 
' ian knowledge, ])rocecded to divide tin* earth amcaig 
hi'i three sons, giving to .lajdiet Kun)p(\ to Sbem Asia, 
to Ham Africa. No ])rovision was made for Ani<‘rica, 
he did not know of its existence. 1'hesc patriarchs, 
undeterred by the terril>le solitudes to which they were 
L'oing, by tlie nndmined swanij)s anti nntracked for- 
jonnieyed to their allotted possessions, and corn- 
Uienced tlie settlement of the continents. 

In seventy years tlie Asiatic family liad incredsed 
to several hundred. They had found their way to the 
plain.s of Mesopotamia, and there, for sonic motive that 



186 


rATRISTIO CHRONOLOGY. 


we cannot divine, began building a tower “whose top 
might, reach to heaven.” Eusebius informs us that the 
work continued for forty years. They did not abandon 
it until a miraculous confusion of their language' took 
place and dispersed them all over the earth* St. Am- 
brose shows that this confusion could not have been 
brought about by men. Origen believes that not even 
the angels 'accomplished it. 

The confusion of tongues has given rise to many 
curious speculations among divines as to the primitive 
speech of man. Some have thought that the language 
of Adam consisted altogether of nouns, that they were 
monosyllables, and that the confusion was occasioned by 
the introduction of polysyllables. But these learned 
men must surely have overlooked the numerous conver- 
sations reported in Genesis, such as those between tbe 
Almighty and Adam, the serpent and Eve, etc. In 
these all the various parts of speech occur. There was. 
however, a coincidence of opinion that the primitive 
language was Hebrew. On the general principles of 
patristicism, it was fitting that this should be the case. 

The Greek Fathers computed that, at the time of 
the dispersion, seventy-two nations were formed, and in 
this conclusion St. Augustine coincides. But difficulties 
seem to have been recognized in these computations; 
thus the learned Dr. Shuckford, who has treated very 
elaborately on all tlio foregoing points in his e.xcellent 
work “ On the Sacred and Profane History of the World 
connected,” demonstrates that there could not have been 
more than twenty-one or twenty-two men, .women, and 
children, in each of those kingdoms. 

*A very vital point in this system of chronological 
computation, based upon the ages of the patriarchs, vaa 
the great length of life to which those worthies attaii 



PATRISTIC CnBONOLOGT. 


187 


ft waS'generally supposed that before the Flood “ thoro 
was a perpetual equinox,” and no vicissitudes in Nature. 
After that event the standard of life diminished one- 
md in the time of the Psalmist it had sunk to 
seventy yeitrs, at which it still remains. Austerities of 
climate were affirmed to have arisen through the sliifting 
of the earth’s axis at the Flood, and to tliis ill effect were 
added the noxious iniluences of that universal catastro- 
phe, which, “ converting the surface of the earth into a 
vast swamp, gave rise to fermentations of the blood 
and a weakening of the fibres.” 

With a view of avoiding difficulties arising from the 
extraordinary length of the patriarchal lives, certain 
divines siif^sted that the years spoken of by the sacred 
])cnman were not ordinary but lunar ye.ars. This, 
though it might bring the ago of those venerable men 
within the recent term of life, introduced, however, 
another insuperable difficulty, since it made them have 
children when only five or six years old. 

.''acred science, as interpreted by the Fathers of the 
Church, demonstrated these facts; 1. That the date of 
Creation was cotnparatively recent, not more than four 
or five thous:ind years before Christ ; 2. That the act of 
Creation occupied the space of six ordinary days; .‘f. 
Tliat the* Deluge was universal, and that tlie animals 
which survived it were preserved in an ark ; 4. Tliat 
Adam was created perfect in morality and intelligence, 
that ho fell, and that his descendants have shared in his 
sin and his fall. 

Of these points and others tliaf might Ije ^mentioned _ 
there were two on which ccclesiiistical authority felt 
that it must insist. These were: 1. The recent chitc 6f 
Creation; for, the remoter that event, the more urgent 
the necessity of vindicating the justice of God, who ap- 



188 


SCIENTIFIC COSMOGONY. 


parently had left the majority of our race to its fate 
and had reserved salvation for the few who were Kving 
in the closing ages of the world ; 2. The perfect con- 
dition of Adam at his creation, since this was nec^jy 
to the theory of the fall, and the plan of saltation. 

Theological authorities were therefore constrained 
to look with disfavor on any attempt to carry back the 
origin of the earth to an epoch indefinitely remote, and 
on the Mohammedan theory of the evolution of man 
from lower forms, or his gradual development to liis 
present condition in the long lapse of tiine. 

From the puerilities, absurdities, and contradictions 
of the foregoing statement, we may gather how very un- 
satisfactory this so-called sacred science was. And per- 
haps we may be brought to the conclusion to which Dr. 
Shuckford, above quoted, was constrained to come, after 
his wearisome and unavailing attempt to coordinate it< 
various parts : “ As to the Fathers of the first ages of 
the Church, they were good men, but not men of uni- 
versal learning.” 

Sacred cosmogony regards the formation and ino'l- 
cling of the earth as the direct act of God ; it rejccU 
the intervention of secondary causes in those events. 

Scientific cosmogony dates from the telescopic di^ 
covery made by Cassini — an Italian astronomer, under 
whoso care Louis XIV. placed the Observatory of Fan-' 
— that the planet Jupiter is not a sphere, but an oldate 
spheroid, flattened at the poles. Mechanical philosopliy 
.demonstrateil that such a figure is the neccssar}’ result 
of the rotation of a yielding mass, and that the more 
rapid the rotation the greater the flattening, or, wh-at 
comes to the same thing, the greater the equatorial bulg- 
ing must be. 



FORMATION OF TOE EARTH. 


189 


From considerations — ^purely of a mechanical kind — 
Xewton had foreseen that such likewise, though to a 
less striking extent, must be the figure of tl»e earth. 
To the piytuberant mass is due the precession of the 
equinoxes, which requires twenty-five thousand eight 
huftdred and sixty-eight years for .its completion, and 
also the nutation of the earth’s axis, disqpvered by 
Bradley. "We have already had occasion to remark 
that the earth’s equatorial diameter exceeds the polar by 
about twenty-six miles. 

Two facts are revealed by the oblateness of the 
earth : 1. That she has formerly been in a yielding 
or plastic condition ; 2. That she has been modeled by a 
mechanical and therefore a secondary cause. 

But this influence of mechanical causes is mani- 
fested not only in the exterior configuration of the 
globe of the earth as a spheroid of revolution, it also 
plainly appears on an examination of the arrangement 
of her substance. 

If we consider the aqueous rocks, their aggregate is 
many miles in thickness ; yet they undeniably have 
l)ccn of slow deposit. The material of which they con- 
sist has been obtained by the disintegration of ancient 
lands; it has found its way into the water-courses, and 
by them been distributed anew. Effects of this kind, 
taking place before our eyes, require a very consid- 
erable lapse of time to prince a well-marked result — 
a water deposit may in this manner measure in thick- 
ness a few inches in a centurj; — what, then, shall wo 
say as to the time consumed in the formation of depos- 
its of many thousand yards ? 

The position of the coast-line of Egypt has Seen 
known for much more than two thousand years. In 
that time it has made, by reason of the detritus brought 



190 


ANTIQUITY OF THE EARTH. 


down by the Nile, a distinctly-marked encroaclime^ 
on the Mediterranean, But all Lower Egypt has liaj 
a similar origin. The coast-line near tbe month of tho 
Mississippi has been well known for thr^ hundreJ 
years, and during tliat time has scarcely made a percep. 
tible advance on the Gulf of Mexico ; but there ^rtl 3 a 
time when the delta of that river was at St. Louis, mon; 
than seven hundred miles from its present position. In 
Egypt and in America — in fact, in all countries— the 
rivers have been inch by inch prolonging the land into 
the sea ; the slowness of their work and the vastness of 
its extent satisfy us that we must concede for the opera- 
tion enormous periods of time. 

To the same conclusion we are brought if we con- 
sider the filling of lakes, the deposit of travertines, tlu- 
denudation of hills, the cutting action of the sea on it.- 
shores, the undermining of cliffs, the weathering of 
rocks by atmospheric water and carbonic acid. 

Sedimentary strata must have been originally de- 
posited in planes nearly horizont.*!!. Vast numbers of 
them have been forced, cither by paroxysms at interval.^ 
or by gradual movement, into all manner of angular in- 
clinations. Whatever explanations we may offer of 
these innumerable and immense tilts and fractures, they 
would seem to demand for their completion an incon- 
ceivable length of time. 

The coal-bearing strata in Wales, by their gnidua’. 
submergence, have attained a thickness of 12,000 feet; 
in Nova Scotia of 14,570 feet. So slow and so steady 
yras this siihmergence, that erect trees stand one aiMve 
another on successive levels ; seventeen such repetitions 
may be counted in a tliickness of 4,515 feet. The age 
of the trees is proved by their size, some being four feet 
in diametOT. Bound tliem, as they gradually went 



GEOLOGICAL RTIDEXCE OF THE EARTH'S AGE. 

VowH 'With the subsiding soil, calainites grew, at one 
level'after another. In the Sydney coal-field fifty-nine 
fossil forests occur in superposition. 

hiarine shells, found on mountain-tops far in the 
interior of ’continents, were regai'ded by theological writ- 
ors.a6 an indisputable illustration of the Deluge. But 
when, as geological studies became more exact, it was 
proved that in the crust of the earth vast fresh-water for- 
mations are repeatedly intercalated with vast marine 
ones, like the leaves of a book, it became evident tlmt 
no single cataclysm was sufficient to account fur such 
results ; that the same region, through gradual varia- 
tions of its level and changes in its topographical sur- 
roundings, had sometimes been dry land, sometimes cov- 
ered with fresh and sometitnes with sea water. It be- 
came evident also that, for the completion of these 
changes, tens of thousands of years were required. 

To this evidence of a remote origin of tlie earth, 
derived from the vast siiperficial extent, tlie enormous 
thickness, and the varied characters of its strata, was 
a<ldcd an imposing body of proof depending on its fos- 
sil remains. The relative ages of formations having 
l)cen ascertained, it was shown that there has been an 
advancing physiological progression of organic forms, 
both vegetable and animal, from the oldest to the most 
recent; that those which inhabit the surface in our 
times are but an insignificant fraction of the prodi- 
gious multitude that have inhabited it heretofore ; that" 
for each species now living there arc thousands that 
have become extinct. Though special fonpations are, 
K) strikingly characterized by some predominating tjrpo 
>f life as to justify such expressions as the age of mol 
usks, the age of reptiles, the age of mammals, the intro- 
luction of the dOw-oomers did not take place abruptly, 



192 


CREATION AND EVOLUTION. 


as by sudden creation. They gradually emerged in 
antecedent age, reached their culmination in the one 
which they characterize, and then gradually died put in 
a succeeding. There is no such thing as a sudden crea- 
tion, a sudden strange appearance — ^but thefc is a slow ' 
metamorphosis, a slow development from a preexisting 
fonn. Here again we encounter the necessity of ad- 
mitting for such results long periods of time. Within 
the range of history no well-marked instance of such 
development has been witnessed, and we speak with 
hesitation of doubtful instances of extinction. Yet in 
geological times myriads of evolutions and extinctions 
have occurred. 

Since thus, within the experience of man, no case of 
metamorphosis or development has been observed, sojne 
have been disposed to deny its possibility altogether, 
affinning that all the different species have come into 
existence by separate creative acts. But surely it is less 
unphilosophical to suppose that each species has been 
evolved from a predecessor by a moditication of its 
parts, than that it has suddenly started into existence 
out of nothing. Nor is there much weight in the re- 
mark that no man has ever witnessed such a transfor- 
mation taking place. Let it be remembered that no 
man has ever witnessed an act of creation, the sudden 
appearance of an organic form, without any progenitor. 

Abrupt, arbitrary, disconnected creative acts may 
serv'o to illustrate the Divine power ; but that continu- 
ous unbroken chain of organisms which extends from 
.palteozoic fonnation| to the formations of recent times, 
a chain in which each link hangs on a preceding and 
sustains a succeeding one, demonstrates to ns not only 
that the production of animated beings is governed by 
law, but Uiat it is by law that has undergone no c^nge- 



tiEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF TUB EARTH'S AGE. I93 


VTn its* operation, tbrougli myriads of ages, there has been 
no variation, no suspension. 

The foregoing paragraphs may serve to indicate the 
character ^of a portion of the evidence with which we 
must deal in considering the problem of the age of the 
erftth. Through the unintermittii^g labors of geologists, 
60 immense a mass has been accumulated,^ that many 
volumes would be required to contain tlie details. It 
is drawn from the phenomena presented by all kinds 
of rocks, aqueous, igneous, metamorphic. Of aqueous 
rocks it investigates the thickness, the inclined positions, 
and how they rest unconformably on one another ; how 
those that are of fresh-water origin are intercalated with 
those that are marine ; how vast masses of material have 
been removed by slow-acting causes of denudation, and 
extensive geographical surfaces have been remodeled ; 
how continents have undergone movements of elevation 
and depression, their shores sunk under the ocean, o» 
sea-beaches and sea-cliffs carried far into the interior. 
It considers the zoological and botanical facts, the fauna 
and flora of the successive ages, and how in an orderly 
manner the chain of organic forms, plants, and animals, 
has been extended, from its dim and doubtful begin- 
nings to our own times. From facts presented by the 
deposit's of coal — coal which, in all its varieties, has 
originated from the decay of plants — it not only demon- 
strates the changes that have taken place in the earth’s 
atmosphere, but also universal changes of climate. From 
other facts it proves that there liave l)een oscillations of 
temperature, periods in which the mean beat has ris^n, 
and periods in which the polar ices and snows have 
covered large portions of the existing continents-i-gla- 
cial periods, as they are tenned. 

One school of geologists, resting its argument on 
o 



194 


ASTRONOMICAL EVIDEN’CE. 


vevy imposing evidence, teaches that the whole mass 
the earth, from being in a molten, or perhaps a vaporous 
condition, has cooled by radiation in the lapse of mill- 
ions of ages, until it has reached its present equilibrium 
of temperature. Astronomical observations ^ve great 
weight to this interpretation, especially so far as the 
planetary bodies of the solar system are concerned. It 
is also supported by such facts as the small mean den- 
sity of the earth, the increasing temperature at increas- 
ing depths, the phenomena of volcanoes and injected 
veins, and those of igneous and metamorphic rocks. 
To satisfy the physical changes which this school of 
geologists contemplates, myriads of centuries are re- 
quired. 

But, with the views that the adoption of the Co- 
pcmican system has giv^en us, it is plain that we can- 
not consider the origin and biography of the earth 
in an isolated way ; we must include with her all the 
other members of the system or family to which she 
belongs. Nay, more, we cannot restrict ourselves to 
the solar system ; we must embrace in our discus- 
sions the starry worlds. And, since we have become 
familiarized with their almost immeasurable distances 
from one another, we arc prepared to accept for their 
origin an immeasurably remote time. There aVe stars 
so far off that their light, fast as it travels, has taken 
thousanda of years to reach us, and hence they must 
have been in existence many thousands of years ago. 

Geologists having unanimously agreed — for perhaps 
there is not •single dissenting voice — that the chronolo- 
gy of the earth must bo greatly extended, attempts have 
been made to give precision to it. Some of these Lave 
been based on astronomical, some on physical principles. 
Thus calculations founded on the known changes of the 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


195 

eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, with a view of deter- 
\uiiring the lapse of time since the beginning of the 
last glacial period, have given two hundred and forty 
thousand years. Though the general postulate of the 
iimnensity of geological times may be conceded, such 
calculations are on too uncertain a theoretical basis to 
furnish incontestable results. 

But, considering the whole subject from *the present 
scientific stand-point, it is very clear that the views pre- 
sented by theological writers, as derived from tho Mo- 
saic record, cannot be admitted. ^Attempts have been 
repeatedly made to reconcile the revealed with the dis- 
covered facts, but they have proved to be unsatisfactory. 
The Mosaic time is too short, the order of creation in- 
correct, the divine interventions too anthropomorphic ; 
and, though the presentment of the subject is in har- 
mony with the ideas that men have enteriained, when 
liitit their minds were turned to the acquisition of natu- 
ral knowledge, it is not in accordance with their present 
conceptions of the insignificance of the earth and the 
grandeur of the universe. ' 

Among late geological discoveries is one of special 
interest ; it is the detection of human remains and hu- 
man works in formations wdiich, though geologically 
recent, are historically very remote. 

The fossil remains of men, with rude implements 
of rough or chipped flint, of polished stone, of bone, of 
bronze, are found in Europe in caves, in drifts, in peat- 
beds. They indicate a savage life, spent in hunting and 
fishing, Kecent researches give reason to believe that, 
under low and base grades, the existence of man cafl be 
traced back into the tertiary times, lie was contempo- 
rary with the Bouthem elephant, the rhinoceros lepto- 



196 


ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


rhimis, tlie great hippopotamus, perhaps even in the mi(K 
cene contemporary with the mastodon. 

At the close of the Tertiary period, from causes not 
yet detennined, the Northern Hemisphere underwent 
a great depression of temperature. From S torrid it 
passed to a glacial condition. After a period of prodi- 
gious length, the temperature again rose, and the glaciers 
that had so extensively covered the surface receded. 
Once more there was a decline in the heat, and the gla- 
ciers again advanced, but this time not so far as former- 
ly. This ushered in the Quaternary period, during 
which very slowly the temperature came to its present 
degree. The water deposits that were being made re- 
quired thousands of centuries for their completion. At 
the beginning of the Quaternary period there were alive 
the cave-bear, the cave-lion, the amphibious hippopota- 
mus, the rhinoceros with cliambered nostrils, the mam- 
moth. In fact, the mammoth swanned. lie delighted 
in a boreal clinrate. By degrees the reindeer, the horse, 
the ox, the bison, multiplied, and disputed with him his 
food. Tartly for this reason, and partly because of the 
increasing heat, he became extinct. From middle Eu- 
rope, also, the reindeer retired. Ilis departure marks 
the end of the Quaternary period. 

Since the advent of man on the earth, wo have, 
therefore, to deal with periods of incalculable length. 
Vast changes in the climate and fauna were produced 
by the slow operation of causes such as are in action at 
the present day. Figures cannot enable us to appreciate 
^eso enormous lapses* of time. 

It seems to bo satisfactorily established, tliat a race 
allied to the Basques may be traced back to the Neo* 
lithic ago. At that time the British Islands were un- 
dergoing a change of level, like that at present occim 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


197 


ring m the Scandinavian Peninsula. Scotland was rising, 
England was sinking. In the Pleistocene ago there ex- 
ist^ in Central Europe a rude race of hunters and fish- 
ers closely allied to the Esquimaux. 

In thd old glacial drift of Scotland the relics of man 
arc found along with those of the fossil elephant. This 
carries us back to that time above referred to, when a 
large portion of Europe was covered with* ice, which 
had edged down from the polar regions to southerly 
latitudes, and, as glaciers, descended from the summits 
of the mountain-chains into the plains. Countless spe- 
cies of animals perished in this cataclysm of ice and 
snow, but man survived. 

In his primitive savage condition, living for the 
most part on fruits, roots, shell-fish, man was in ix)sses- 
hioii of a fact which was certain eventually to insure 
his civilization. lie knew how to make a fire. In peat- 
l>eds, under the remains of trees that in those localities 
have long ago become extinct, his relics arc still found, 
the implements that accompany him indicating a dis- 
tinct chronological order. Xear the surface are those of 
bronze, lower down those of bone or horn, still lower 
those of polished stone, and beneath all those of chip])ed 
<»r rough stone. The d.ate of the origin of some of these 
beds canmot be estimated at less tliaii forty or fifty thou- 
sand years. 

The cjivos that have been examined in France and 
elsewhere have funiished for the Stone age axes, knives, 
lance and arrow points, scrapers, hammers. I'lie change 
from what may be termed the chij)ped to the polished 
f»tone period is very gradual. It coincides with the 
domestication of the dog, an epoch in hunting-lift*. It 
embraces thousands of centuries. The appearance of 
aiTow-heads indicates the invention of the how, and the 



198 


ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 


rise of man from a defensive to tm ofiensive mode of 
life. The introduction of barbed arrows shows how In- * 
ventive talent was displaying itself ; bone and horn tips, 
that the himtsman was including smaller animals, and 
perhaps birds, in bis chase ; bone whistles, his compan- 
ionship with other huntsmen or with his dog. Tlw 
scraping-knives of flint indicate the use of skin for 
clothing, and rude bodkins and needles its manufacture. 
Shells perforated for bracelets and necklaces prove how 
soon a taste for personal adornment was acquired ; tho 
implements necessary for the preparation of pigments 
suggest the painting of the body, and perhaps tattooing ; 
and b&tons of rank bear witness to the beginning of a 
social organization. 

. With tho utmost interest we look upon the first 
gorms of art among these primitive men. They have 
left us rude sketches on pieces of ivorj' and flakes of 
bone, and carvings, of the animals contemporary with 
them. In these prehistoric delineations, sometimes not 
without spirit, we have mammoths, combats of rein- 
deer. One presents us with a man harpooning a fish, 
another a hunting-scene of naked men armed with the 
dart; Man is the only animal who has the propensity 
of depicting e.\ternal forms, and of availing himself ol 
the use of fire. 

Shell-mounds, consisting of bones and sliells, some 
of which may be justly described as of vast extent, and 
of a date anterior to the Ilronze age, and full of stone 
implements, bear in all their parts indications of the use 
of tire. Thc^ are often adjacent to the existing coasts ; 
sometimes, however, they are far inland, in certain in- 
stances as far as fifty miles. Their contents and posi- 
tion indicate for them a date posterior to that of the 
great extinct mammals, but prior to the domesticated. 



ANTIQUITY OF MAN. I99 

* 

Some* of these, it is said, cannot be less than one hundred 
^onsand years old. 

The lake-dwellings in Switzerland — ^huts built on 
piles or logs, wattled with boughs — ^were, as may be in- 
ferred frdha the accompanying implements, begun in the 
Stone age, and continued into that of Bronze. In the 
latter period the evidences become numerous of the 
adoption of an agricultural life. 

It must not be supposed that the periods into which 
geologists have found it convenient to divide the prog 
ress of man in civilization are abrupt epochs, which 
hold good simultaneously for the whole human race. 
Thus the wandering Indians of America are only at the 
present moment emerging from the Stone age. They 
are still to be seen in many places armed with arrows, 
tipped with flakes of flint. It is but as yesterday that 
some have obtained, from the white man, iron, fire-arms, 
and the horse. 

So far as investigations have gone, they indisputably 
refer the existence of man to a date remote from us 
hy many hundreds of thousiinds of y«irs. It must be 
borne in mind that these investigations arc <piito recent, 
and confined to a very limited geographical space. No 
researches have yet Ijeen made in those regions which 
might reasonably be regarded as the primitive habitat 
of man. 

We are thus carried back immeasurably beyond the 
six thousand years of Patristic chronology. It is diffi- 
cult to assign a shorter date for the last glaciation of 
Kurope than a quarter of a millioV. of yearu, and human 
existence antedates that. But not only is it this grand 
fact that confronts us, we have to admit also a primitivo 
animalized state, and a slow, a gradual development. 

But this forlorn, this savage condition of humanity 



200 


AGE OF THE EARTH. 


is in strong contrast to the paradisiacal happiness of the * 
garden of Eden, and,' what is far more serious, it is incorf 
sistent with the theory of the Fall. 

I have been induced to place the subject of this 
chapter out of its proper chronological order, for tjie 
sake of presenting what I had to say respecting the na- 
ture of the world more completely by itself. The dis- 
cussions that arose as to the age of the earth were long 
after the conflict as to the criterion of truth~that is, 
after the Reformation ; indeed, they were substantially 
included in the present eentury. They have been con- 
ducted with so iiipch moderation as to justify the tenn 
I have used in the title of this chapter, Controversy,” 
rather than “ Conflict.” Geology has not had to en- 
counter the vindictive opposition with which astronomy 
was assailed, and, though, on her part, she has insisted 
on a concession of great anticpiity for the earth, she has 
hei*sclf pointed out the unreliability of all numerical 
estimates thus far offered. The attentive reader of this 
chapter cannot have failed to observe inconsistencies in 
the numbers quoted. Though wanting the merit of ex- 
actness, those numbers, however, justify the claim of 
vast antiquity, and draw us to the conclusion that the 
time-scale of the world answei*s to the space-scale in 
magnitude. 



CHAPTER Vm. 


OOKFLICT RESPECTING THE CRITERION OF TRUTH, 


Jncimi philosophy declares that man has no tneans of ascertaining ihs 
truth. 

Differences of belief arise among tlie early Christians. — An ineffectual aU 
tempt is made to remedy them by Councils. — Miracle and ordeal proof 
introduced. 

The papacy resorts to auricular confession a fid the Inquisition. — It per- 
peirates frightful atrocities for the suppression of differences of 
opinion. 

Effect of the discovery of the Pandects of Justinian and development of the 
canon law on the nature of evidence. — It becomes more scirntife. 

The Jteformation establishes the rights of individual reason. — Catholicism 
asserts that the criterion of truth is in the Church. It restrains the 
reading of books by the lnd*'x Expur gator iuSy and combats dissent 
by such means as the massacre of St. Bartholomeid's Eve. 

Examination of the authenticity of the Pentateuch as the Protestant crite^ 
rion.^Spurious character of those books. 

For Scier^e the criterion of truth is to be found in the revelations of Ea- 
tare : for the Protestant ^ it is in the Scriptures ; for the Catholic^ in 
an infallible Pope, 

“What is truth?” was the passionate demand of a 
Roman procurator on one of the most momentous occa- 
sions in history. And the Di\^iie Person who stood 
before him, to whom the interrogation was addrcssc’d, 
made no reply — unless, indeed, silence contained* the 
reply. 

Often and vainly had that demand been made before 



202 


THB CRITERIOK OF TRUTH. 


—often and vainly has it been made since. Ko one has * 
yet given a satisfactory answer. 

'Wben, at the dawn of science in Greece, the ancient 
religion was disappearing like a mist at sunrise, the 
pious and thoughtful men of that country wefe thrown 
into a condition of intellectual despair. Anaxagows 
plaintively exclaims, “ Nothing can be known, nothing 
can be learned, nothing can be certain, sense is limited, 
intellect is weak, life is short.” Xenophanes tells us 
that it is impossible for us to be ceidain even when we 
utter the truth. Parmenides declares that the very con- 
stitution of man prevents him from ascertaining abso- 
lute truth. Empedocles affirms that all philosophical 
and religious systems must be unreliable, because we 
have no criterion by which to test them. Democritus 
asserts that oven things that are true cannot impart cer- 
tainty to us ; that the final I'esult of human inquiry is 
the discovery that man is incapable of absolute knowl- 
edge ; that, oven if the truth be in his possession, ho 
cannot bo certain of it. Pyrrho bids us reflect on the 
necessity of suspending our judgment of things, since 
we have no criterion of truth ; so deep a distrust did he 
impart to his followers, that they were in the habit of 
saying, “We assert nothing ; no, not even that we assert 
nothing.” Epicurus taught his disciples that truth 
can never be determined by reason. Arcesilaus, deny- 
ing both intellectual and sensuous knowledge, publicly 
avowed tliat ho knew nothing, not oven his oum igno- 
rance 1 The general conclusion to which Greek philoso- 
phy came was ^his — that, in view of the contradiction of 
the evidence of the senses, we cannot distinguish the 
true ’from the false ; and such is the imperfection of rea- 
son, that wo omnot affirm the correctness of any philo- 
sophical deduction. 



THE CRITERION OF TRUTH. 


303 


It ihight be supposed that a revelation from God to- 
man Would come -with sueb force and clearness as to 
eettle all uncertainties and overwhelm all opposition. 

Greek philosopher, less despairing than others, had 
ventured to affii*m that the coexistence of two forms of 
faiA, both claiming to be revealed by the omnipotent 
God, proves that neither of them is true. But let us 
remember that it is ditRcult for men to come to the 
same conclusion as regards even material and visible 
things, unless they stand at the same point of view. If 
discord and distrust were the condition of philosophy 
three hundred years before the birth of Christ, discord 
and distrust were the condition of religion three hun- 
dred years after his death. This is what Hilary, the 
bishop of Poictiers, in his well-known passage written 
about the time of the Nicene Council, says : 

“ It is a thing equally deplorable and dangerous that 
there are as many creeds as opinions among men, as 
many doctrines as inclinations, and as many sources of 
blasphemy as there are faults among us, because we 
make creeds arbitrarily and explain them as arbitrarily. 
Every year, nay, every moon, we make new creeds to 
describe invisible mysteries; we repent of what wo 
have done ; we defend those who repent ; we anathe- 
matize those whom we defend ; we condemn either the 
doctrines of others in ourselves, or our own in that of 
othei-s; and, reciprocally tearing each other to pieces, 
we have been the cause of each other’s ruin.” 

These arc not mere words ; but the import of this 
H'lf-accusation can be realized fully only by. such as ar^ 
familiar -with the ecclesiastical history of those times. 
As soon as the first fervor of Christianity as a sys- 
tem of benevolence had declined, dissensions appeared. 
Ecclesiastical historians assert that “ as early as the sec* 



204 


EARLY CHRISTIAN COUNCILS. 


ond century began the contest between faith and rea-* 
son, religion and philosophy, piety and genius.”’ 
compose these dissensions, to obtain some authoritative 
expression, some criterion of truth, assemblies for con- 
sultation were resorted to, which eventualljT took the 
form of councils. For a long time they had nothing 
more than an advisory authority ; but, when, in the 
fourth century, Christianity had attained to imperial 
rule, their dictates became compulsory, being enforced 
by the civil power. By this the whole face of the 
Church was changed. Gieumenical councils — parlia- 
ments of Christianity — consisting of delegates from all 
the churches in the world, were summoned by the au- 
thority of the emperor ; he presided either personally 
or nominally in them — composed all differences, and 
was, in fact, the Pope of Christendom. Mosheim, the 
historian, to whom I have more particularly referred 
above, speaking of these times, remarks that “ there 
was nothing to e.xclude the ignorant from ecclesiivstical 
preferment ; the savage and illiterate party, who looked 
on all kinds of learning, particularly philosophy, as per 
nicious to piety, was increasing ; ” and, accordingly, “the 
dikputes carried on in the Council of Nicea offered a re- 
markable example of the greatest ignorance and uttci 
confusion of ideas, particularly in the language and c.v 
planations of tlioso who approved of the decisions of 
that council.” Vast as its influence has been, “the 
ancient critics are neither agreed concerning the time 
nor place in which it was assembled, the number of those 
>yho sat in \t)nor the bishop who presided. No authen- 
tic acts of its famous sentence have been committed to 
writing, or, at least, none have been transmitted to our 
times.” The Church had now become what, in the 
language of modern politicians, would be called “ a con- 



THE COtTHCII, OP NICEA. 


205 


federated republic.” The will of the council waa de- 
termined by a majority vote, and, to secure that, all 
manner of intrigues and impositions were resorted to ; 
the influence of court females, bribery, and violence, 
were not spared. The Council of Nicea had scarcely ad- 
johrned, when it was plain to all impartial men that, as 
a method of establishing a criterion of truth in religions 
matters, such councils were a tohil failure. The mi- 
nority had no rights which the majority need respect 
The protest of many good men, that a mere majority 
vote given by delegates, whoso right to vote had never 
been examined and authorized, could not be received a? 
ascertaining absolute truth, was passed over with con 
tempt, and the consequence was, that council was as- 
sembled against council, and their jarring and contra- 
dictory decrees spread pei*plcxity and confusion through- 
out the Christian world. In the fourth century alone 
there were thirteen councils adverse to Arins, fifteen in 
his favor, and seventeen for the semi-Arians — in all, 
forty-five. Minorities were perpetually attempting to 
use the weapon which majorities had abused. 

The impartial ecclesiastical historian above quoted, 
moreover, siiys that “ two monstrous and calamitous 
errors were adopted in this fourth century : 1. That it 
was an act of virtue to deceive and lie when, by that 
means, the interests of the Church might bo promoted. 
2. That errors in religion, when maintained and ad- 
hered to after proper admonition, were punishable witii 
civil penalties and corporal tortures.” 

Not without astonishment can we loolf back at wh^t, 
in those times, were popularly regarded as criteria of 
truth. Doctrines were considered as established by the 
number of martyrs who had professed them, by mira- 
cles, by the confession of demons, of lunatics, or of per- 



206 TKUTH DETERMINED BY MIRACLES. 

sons possessed of evil spirits : thus, St. Ambrose; in liU* 
disputes with the Arians, produced men possessed ijy 
devils, who, on the approach of the relics of certain 
martyrs, acknowledged, with loud cries, that the Nicean 
doctrine of the three persons of the Godhead was time.* 
But the Arians charged him with suborning these infer- 
nal witnesses with a weighty bribe. Already, ordeal 
tribunals were making their appearance. During the 
following six centuries they were held as a final resort 
for establishing guilt or innocence, under the foniis of 
trial by cold water, by duel, by the fire, by the cross. 

What an utter ignorance of the nature of evidence 
and its laws have we here ! An accused man sinks or 
swims when thrown into a pond of water ; he is liurm 
or escapes unharmed when he holds a piece of red-hot 
iron in his hand ; a cliampion whom he lias hired is van- 
quished or vanquishes in single fight ; he can keep hi.' 
arms outstretched like a cross, or fails to do so longer 
than his accuser, and his innocence or guilt of some im- 
puted crime is established ! Are these criteria of truth i 

Is it surprising that all Europe was filled with im 
posture miracles during those ages ? — miracles that are 
a disgrace to the common-sense of man ! 

But the inevitable day came at length. Assertions 
and doctrines based upon such preposterous evidence 
were involved in the discredit that fell upon the evi- 
dence itself. As the thirteenth century is approached, 
we find unbelief in all directions setting in. First, it is 
plainly seen among the monastic orders, then it spreatls 
rapidly amqug the common people. Books, such as 
The Everlasting Gospel,” appear among the former ; 
secty, such as the Catharists, Waldenses, Petrobrussians, 
arise among the latter. They agreed in this, ‘Uhat 
the public and established religion was a motley system 



auricular confession and the inquisition. 207 

of errors and superstitions, and that the dominion which 
the f)ope had usurped over Christians was unlawful and 
tyrannical ; that the claim put forth by Eome, that the 
bishop of Eome is the supreme lord of the universe, 
and that ifeither princes nor bishops, civil governors nor 
ecclesiastical rulers, have any lawful power in church or 
state but what they receive from him, is utterly with- 
out foundation, and a usurpation of the* rights of 
man.” 

To withstand this flood of impiety, the papal gov- 
ernment established two institutions : 1. The Inquisi- 
tion ; 2. Auricular confession — the latter as a means of 
detection, the former as a tribunal for punishment. 

In general terms, the commission of the Inquisition 
was, to extirpate religious dissent by terrorism, and sur- 
rouml heresy with the most horrible associations ; this 
necessarily implied the power of determining what con- 
stitutes heresy. The criterion of truth was thus in jws- 
session of this tribunal, which was chai’ged “to discover 
and bring to judgment heretics lurking in towns, houses, 
('ellars, woods, caves, and fields.” With such Rivage 
alacrity did it carry out its object of protecting the in- 
terests of religion, that between 1481 and 1808 it had 
punished three hundred and forty thousand persons, and 
<>f these nearly thirty-two thousand had been ])unit ! 
In its earlier days, when public opinion could find no 
means of protesting against its atrocities, “ it often put 
to deatli, without appeal, on the very day that they 
were accused, nobles, clerks, monks, liennits, and lay 
l>ersons of every rank.” In whatever direolipn thought- 
ful men looked, the air was full of fearful sliadows. No 
one could indulge in freedom of thought without ^ex- 
pecting punishment. So dreadful were the proceedings 
of the Inquisition, that the exclamation of Pagliarici 



^08 


THE IKQUISITIOH. 


was the exclamation of thousands : ‘‘ It is hardlj^ possi-* 
hie for a man to be a Christian, and die in his bed.” * 

The Inquisition destroyed the sectaries of Southern 
France in the thirteenth century. Its unscrupulous 
atrocities extirpated Protestantism in Italy and Spain. 
Nor did it confine itself to religious affairs ; it engaged 
in the suppression of political discontent. Nicolas 
Eymcric, who was inquisitor-general of the kingdom of 
Aragon for nearly fifty years, and who died in 1399, 
has left a frightful statement of its conduct and appall- 
ing cruelties in his “ Directorium Inquisitorum.” 

This disgrace of Christianity, and indeed of the 
human race, had different constitutions in different 
countries. The papal Inquisition continued the tyran- 
ny, and eventually superseded the old episcopal inqui- 
sitions. The authority of the bishops was unceremo- 
niously put aside by the officers of the pope. 

By the action of the fourth Lateran Council, a. n. 
1215, the power of the Inquisition was frightfully in- 
creased, the necessity of private confession to a priest — 
auricular confession — being at that time formally estab- 
lished. This, BO far as domestic life was concerned, 
gave omnipresence and omniscience to the Inquisition. 
Not a man was safe. In the hands of the priest, who, at 
the confessional, could extract or extort from them their 
most secret thoughts, his wife and his servants were 
turned into spies. Summoned before the dread tribu- 
nal, ho was simply informed that he lay imder strong 
suspicions of heresy. No accuser was named ; but the 
thumb-screw, the stre'tching-rope, the boot and wedge, 
or other enginer)' of torture, soon supplied that defect, 
and, innocent or guilty, ho accused himself 1 

Notwithstanding all this power, the Inquisition failed 
of its purpose. 'When the heretic could no longer con* 



EFFECTS OF THE INQUISITION. 


209 


front It, he evaded it. A dismal disbelief stealthily per- 
vaded all Europe— a denial of Providence, of the im- 
mortality of the soul, of human fi-ee-will, and that man 
can possi^y resist the absolute necessity', the destiny 
which envelops him. Ideas such as these were cher 
ished in silence by multitudes of pwsons driven to them 
by the tyrannical acts of ecclesiasticism. I;i spite of 
persecution, the Waldenses still survived to propagate 
tbeir declaration that the Eoman Church, since Con 
stantinc, had degenerated from its purity and sanctity ; 
to protest against the sale of indulgences, which they 
said had nearly abolished prayer, fasting, alms ; to aflinn 
that it was utterly useless to pray for the souls of the 
dead, since they must already have gone either to heaven 
or hell. Though it was generally believed that philos- 
ophy or science was pernicious to the interests of Cliris- 
tianity or true piety, the Mohammedan literature then 
prevailing in Spain was making converts among all 
classes of society. We see very plainly its influence in 
many of the sects that then arose ; thus, « the Brethren 
and Sistera of the Free Spirit” held that « the universe 
came by emanation from God, and would finally return 
to him by absorption ; that rational souls are so many 
portions of the Supreme Deity ; and that the universe, 
considered as one great whole, is God.” These are 
ideas that can only be entertained in an advanced intel- 
lectual condition. Of this sect it is said that many 
suffered burning with unclouded serenity, with trium- 
phant feelings of cheerfulness and joy. Their orthodo.v 
enemies accused them of gratifying their ’passions at 
midnight assemblages in darkened rooms, to which l^oth 
fle.ve8 in a condition of nudity repaired. A similar accu- 
sation, as is well known, was brought against the primi- 
tive Christians by the fashionable society of Home. 

p 



210 


THE PANDECTS OF JUSTINIAN. 


The influences of the Averroistic philosophy’ wer^ 
apparent in many of these sects. That Mohamm^an 
system, considered from a Christian point of view, led 
to the heretical belief that the end of the precepts of 
Christianity is the union of the soul with the Supreme 
Being ; that God and Nature have the same relatiohs 
to each otl\er as the soul and the body ; that there is 
but one individual intelligence ; and that one soul per- 
forms all the spiritual and rational functions in all the 
human race. When, subsequently, toward the time of 
the lleformation, the Italian Averroistswere required by 
the Inquisition to give an account of themselves, they 
attempted to show that there is a wide distinction be- 
tween philosophical and religious truth; that things 
may be philosophically true, and yet theologically false — 
an exculpatory device condemned at length by the Lat- 
cim Council in the time of Leo X. 

But, in spite of auricular confession, and the Inqui- 
sition, these heretical tendencies survived. It has been 
truly said that, at the epoch of the Keformation, there 
lay concealed, in many parts of Europe, persons who en- 
tertained the most vinilent enmity against Christianity. 
In ‘this pernicious class were many Aristotelians, such 
as Pompouatius ; many philosophers and wits, such as 
Bodin, Babclais, Montaigne ; many Italians, as Leo X., 
Bembo, Bruno. 

Miracle-evidence began to fall into discredit during 
tlio eleventh and twelfth centuries. The sarcasms of 
the Hispano-Moorish philosophers had forcibly drawn 
the attentiorf* of many of the more enlightened eccle- 
siastics to its illusory nature. The discovery of the 
Pandects of Justinian, at Amalfi, in 1130, doubtless 
exerted a very powerful influence in promoting the 
study of Boman jurisprudence, and disseminating better 



THE DiSCRETALS. 


311 


notioiis as to the character of legal or phaosophical evi- 
dence. Hallam has cast some doubt on the well-known 
story of this discovery, but he admits that the celebrated 
copy in the Laurentian library, at Florence, is the only 
one containing the entire fifty books. Twenty years 
subsequently, the monk Gratian collected together the 
various papal edicts, the canons of councils, the dec- 
larations of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, in 
a volume called “ The Decretum,” considered as the 
earliest authority in canon law. In the next century 
Gregory IX. published five books of Decretals, and 
Boniface VIII. subsequently added a sixth. To these 
followed the Clementine Constitutions, a seventh book 
of Decretals, and “ A Book of Institutes,” publislicd to- 
gether, by Gregory XIII., in 1580, under the title of 
“Corpus Juris Canonici.” The canon law had grad- 
ually gained enormous power through the control it had 
obtained over wills, the guardianship of orphans, mar- 
riages, and divorces. 

The rejection of miracle-evidence, and the substitu- 
tion of legal evidence in its stead, accelerated the ap- 
proach of the Keformation. No longer was it possible 
to admit the requirement which, in former days, An- 
selm, the Archbishop of Canterbmy, in his treatise, 

“ Cur Deus Homo,” had enforced, that we must first 
Ixilieve without examination, and may afterward en- 
deavor to understand what wo have thus believed. 
IVhen Cajetau said to Luther, “ Thou most believe 
that one single drop of Christ’s blood is sufficient to 
ludeem the whole human race, and the remaining quan- 
tity that was shed in the garden and on the cross was 
left as a legacy to the pope, to be a treasure from which 
indulgences were to be drawn,” the soul of the sturdy 
German monk revolted against such a monstrous asser- 



THE REFORMATION. 


212 

tion, nor would he have believed it though a thousand 
miracles had been worked in its support. This shameful 
practice of selling indulgences for the commission of sin 
originated among the bishops, who, when they had need 
of money for their private pleasures, obtained it in that 
way. Abbots and monks, to whom this gainful commerce 
was denied, raised funds by carrying about relics in sol- 
emn procession, and charging a fee for touching them. 
The popes, in their pecuniary straits, perceiving how 
lucrative the practice might become, deprived the bish- 
ops of the right of making such sales, and appropriated 
it to themselves, establishing agencies, chiefly among the 
mendicant orders, for the traflic. Among these orders 
there was a sharp competition, each boasting of the su- 
perior value of its indulgences through its greater in- 
fluence at the court of heaven, its familiar connection 
with the Virgin Mary and the saints in glory. Even 
against Luther himself, who had been an Aiigustinian 
monk, a calumny was circulated that he was first alien- 
ated from the Church by a traffic of this kind having 
been conferred on the Dominicans, instead of on his own 
order, at the time when Leo X. was raising funds hv 
this means for building St. Peter’s, at Kome, a. d. 1517 ; 
and there is reason to think that Leo himself, in the 
earlier stages of the Eefomiation, attached vfeight to 
that allegation. 

Indulgences were thus the immediate inciting cause 
of the Eefonnation, but very soon there came into light 
the real principle th^t was animating the controversy. 
It lay in tlife question. Does the Bible owe its authen- 
ticity to the Church? or does the Church owe her au- 
thenticity to the Bible? "Where is the criterion of 
truth ? 

It is not necessary for me here to relate the well- 



THE REFORMATION. 


213 


known particulars of that controversy, the desolating 
A'are and scenes of blood to which it gave rise: how 
Luther posted on the dodr of the cathedral of Wittem- 
berg ninety-five theses, and was summoned to Rome to 
answer for his offense ; how he appealed from the pope, 
ill-informed at the time, to the pope when he should 
have been better instructed ; how he was condemned as 
a heretic, and thereupon appealed to a general council ; 
how, through the disputes about purgatory, transubstan- 
tiation, auricular confession, absolution, the fundamental 
idea which lay at the bottom of the whole movement 
came into relief, the right of individual judgment ; how 
Luther was now excommunicated, a. d. 1520, and in de- 
fiance burnt the bull of excommunication and the vol- 
umes of the canon law, which he denounced as aiming 
at the subversion of all civil govennnent, and the exalta- 
tion of the papacy ; how by this skillful manoeuvre ho 
brought over many of the German princes to his views ; 
how, summoned before the Imperial Diet at Worms, he 
refused to retract, and, while he was hidden in tlie castle 
of Wartburg, his doctrines were spreading, and a ref- 
ormation under Zwingli broke out in Switzerland ; liow 
the principle of sectarian decomposition embedded in 
the movement gfivo rise to rivalries and dissensions be- 
tween .the Gemians and tlie Swiss, and even divided 
the latter among themselves under the leadership of 
Zwingli and of Calvin ; how the Conference of Marburg, 
the Diet of Spires, and that at Augsburg, failed to com- 
pose the troubles, and eventually the German Reforma- 
tion assumed a political organization at Sin|ilcalde. The 
quari^els lietwcen the Lutherans and tlie Ciflvinists gave 
hopes to Rome that she might recover her losses. 

Leo was not slow to discern that the Lutheran Ref- 
ormation was something more serious than a squabble 



214 


THE BEFOKMATION. 


among some monks about tbe profits of indulgenco-sales, 
and the papacy set itself seriously at work to overeome 
the revolters. It instigated the frightful wars for 
so many years desolated Europe, and left animosities 
which neither the Treaty of Westphalia, nor the Council ' 
of Trent after eighteen years of debate, coidd compose. 
No one can read without a shudder the attempts that 
were made to extend the Inquisition in foreign coun- 
tries. All Europe, Catholic and Protestant, was horror- 
stricken at the Huguenot massacre of St. Bartholomew’s 
Eve (a. d. 1572). For perfidy and atrocity it has no 
equal in the annals of the world, i 

The desperate attempt in which the papacy had been 
engaged to put down its opponents by instigating civil 
wars, massacres, and assassinations, proved to be alto- 
gether abortive. Nor had the Council of Trent any 
better result. Ostensibly summoned to correct, illus- 
trate, and fix with perspicacity the doctrine of the 
Church, to restore the vigor of its discipline, and to re- 
form the lives of its ministers, it was so manipulated 
that a large majority of its members were Italians, and 
under the influence of the pope. Hence the Protestants 
could not possibly accept its decisions. 

The issue of the llefonnation was the acceptance by 
all the Protestant Churches of the dogma that the Bible 
is a sufficient guide for every Christian man. Tradition 
was rejected, and the right of private interpretation as- 
sured. It was thought that the criterion of truth had 
at length been obtained. 

The autl^prity thurf imputed to the Scriptures was 
riot i*estricted to matters of a purely religious or moral 
kind ; it extended over philosophical facts and to the 
intei'pretation of Nature. Many went as far as in the 
old times Epiphanius had done: he believed that the 



LUTHER. 


215 


Bible contained a complete system of mineralogy 1 The 
‘Reformers wonld tolerate no science that was not in 
accordance with Glenesis. Among them there were 
many who maintained that religion and piety could 
never flonri^ unless separated from learning and sci- 
ence. The fatal maxim that the Bible contained the 
sum and substance of all knowledge, useful or pos- 
sible to man — ^a maxim employed with such pernicious 
effect of old by Tertullian and by St. Augustine, and 
which had so often been enforced by papal authority — 
was still strictly insisted upon. The leaders of the Ref- 
ormation, Luther and Melanchthon, were determined 
to banish philosophy from the Church. Luther declared 
that the study of Aristotle is wholly useless ; his vilifica- 
tion of that Greek philosopher knew no bounds. He 
is, says Luther, “truly a devil, a hoiTid calumniator, 
a wicked sycophant, a prince of darkness, a real Apol- 
lyon, a beast, a most horrid impostor on mankind, one 
in whom there is scarcely any philosophy, a public and 
professed liar, a goat, a complete epicure, this twice 
e.xecrable Aristotle.” The schoolmen were, so Luther 
said, “ locusts, caterpillars, frogs, lice.” He entertained 
an abhorrence for them. These opinions, though not 
so emphatically expressed, were entertained by Calvin. 
So far «s science is concerned, nothing is owed to the 
Reformation. The Procrustean bed of the Pentateuch 
was still before her. 

In the annals of Christianity the most ill-omened 
day is that in which she separated herself from science. 
She compelled Origen, at that time (a. 1 )., 2 ; 31 ) its chief 
representative and supporter in the Church, to aban- 
don his charge in Alexandria, and retire to Csesurea. 
In vain through many subsequent centuries did her 
leading men spend themselves in — as the phrase then 



216 


CALVIN. 


went — “drawing forth the internal juice and marrow' 
of the Scriptures for the explaining of things.” Un» 
versal history from the third to the sixteenth century 
shows with what result. tThe dark ages owe their 
darkness to this fatal policyj Here and there, it is 
true, there were great men, such as Frederick II. apd 
Alphonso X., who, standing at a very elevated and gen- 
eral point <5f view, had detected the value of learning to 
civilization, and, in the midst of the dreary prospect that 
ecclesiasticism had created around them, had recognized 
that science alone can improve the social condition of 
man. 

The infliction of the death-punishment for difference 
of opinion was still resorted to. When Calvin caused 
Servetus to be burnt at Geneva, it was obvious to every 
one that the spirit of persecution was unimpaired. The 
offense of that philosopher lay in his belief. This was, 
tliat the genuine doctrines of Christianity had been lost 
even before the time of the Council of Nicea ; that tlio 
Holy Ghost animates the whole system of Nature, like 
a soul of the world, and that, with the Christ, it will 
be absorbed, at the end of all things, into the substance 
of tlie Deity, from which they had emanated. For this 
he was roasted to death over a slow fire. Was there 
any distinction between this Protestant auto-da-fe and 
the Catholic one of V.anini, who was burnt at Tou- 
louse, by the Inquisition, in 1C20, for bis “ Dialogues 
concerning Nature ? ” 

The invention of printing, the dissemination of 
books, had iitfroduced h class of dangers wdiich the per- 
secution of the Inquisition could not reach. In 1550, 
Pojfe Paul IV. instituted the Congregation of the In- 
dex Expurgatorius. “ Its duty is to examine books and 
manuscripts intended for publication, and to decide 



THE INDEX EXPURGATORIUS. 


217 


whether the people may be permitted to read them ; to 
correct those books of which the errors are not nu- 
merous, and which contain certain useful and salutary 
truths, so as to bring them into harmony with the doc- 
trines of the Church ; to condemn those of which the 
principles are heretical and pernicious; and to grant 
the peculiar privilege of perusing heretical books to cer- 
tain persons. This congregation, wliich is sometimes 
held in presence of the pope, but generally in the pal- 
ace of the Cardinal-president, has a more extensive 
jurisdiction than that of the Inquisition, as it not only 
takes cognizance of those books that contain doctrines 
contrary to the Eoman Catholic faith, but of those that 
concern the duties of morality, the discipline of the 
Church, the interests of society. Its name is derived 
from the alphabetical tables or indexes of heretical 
books and authors composed by its appointment.” 

The Index Kxpurgatorius of prohibited books at 
first indicated these works which it was unlawful to 
read ; but, on this being found insufficient, whatever 
was not permitted was prohibited — an audacious at- 
tempt to prevent all knowledge, except such as suited 
the purposes of the Church, from reaching the people. 

The two rival divisions of the Christian Church — 
Protestant and Catholic — were thus in accord on one 
point ; to tolerate no science except such as they con- 
sidered to be agreeable to the Scriptures. The Catho- 
lic, being in possession of centralized power, could make 
its decisions respected wherever its sway wfis acknowl- 
edged, and enforce the monitions of the Iqdex Expurga- 
torius ; the Protestant, whose influence *was diffusted 
among many foci in different nations, could not act in 
such a direct and resolute manner. Its mode of pro- 
cedure was, by raising a theological odium against an 



218 the SCRIFTITRES THE STANDARD OF SCIENCE. 


offender, to put him under a social ban — ^a course per< 
haps not less effectual than the other. 

As we hare seen in former chapters, an antagonism 
between religion and science had existed from the earli- 
est days of Christianity. On every occasion permitting 
its display it may be detected through successive centu- 
ries. We witness it in the downfall of the Alexandrian 
Museum, in the cases of Erigena and Wiclif, in the con- 
temptuous rejection by the heretics of the thirteenth 
century of the Scriptural account of the Creation ; but 
it was not until the epoch of Copernicus, Kepler, and 
Galileo, that the efforts of Science to burst from the 
thraldom in which she was fettered became uncontrol- 
lable. In all countries the political power of the Church 
had greatly declined ; her leading men perceived that 
the cloudy foundation on which she had stood was dis- 
solving away. Bepressive measures against her antago- 
nists, in old times resorted to with effect, could be no 
longer advantageously employed. To her interests the 
burning of a ])hilosophcr hero and there did more harm 
than good. In her great conflict with astronomy, a 
conflict in which Galileo stands as the central flgure, 
she received an utter ovcrtlu’ow ; and, as we have seen, 
when the immortal work of Newton was printed, she 
could offer no resistance, though Leibnitz affirmed, in 
the face of Eui*ope, that “ Newton had robbed the Deity 
of some of his most excellent attributes, and had sapped 
the foundation of natural religion.” 

From the time of Newton to our own time, the di- 
vergence of tjpience frotn the dogmas of the Church has 
cdntinualjy increased. The Church declared tliat the 
eaith is the central and most important body in the 
universe ; that the sun and moon and stars are tribu- 
tary to it. On these points she was worsted by astron 



THE PENTATEUCH. 


219 


omy* She afiSrmed that a universal deluge had covered 
the' earth ; that the only surviving animals urere such as 
bad been saved in an ark. In this her error was estab- 
lished by geology. She taught that there was a first 
man, who, some six or eight thousand years ago, was 
svddenly created or called into existence in a condition 
of physical and moral perfection, and from that eoHdi- 
tion he fell. But anthropology has shown 'that human 
beings existed far back in geological time, and in a sav- 
age state but little better than that of the brute. 

Many good and well-meaning men have attempted 
to reconcile the statements of Genesis with the discov- 
eries of science, but it is in vain..- The divergence has 
increased so mnch, that it has become an absolute oppo 
sition. One of the antagonists must give way. 

May we not, then, be permitted to examine the au 
thenticity of tliis book, which, since the second century, 
lias been put forth ns the criterion of scientific truth ? 
To maintain itself in a position so exalted, it must chal- 
lenge human criticism. 

In the early Christian ages, many of the most emi- 
nent Fathei's of the Church had serious doubts respect- 
ing the authorship of the entire Pentateuch. I have not 
space, in the limited compass of these pages, to present 
in detail the facts and aiguracnts that were then and 
have since been adduced. The literature of the subject 
is now very extensive. I niay, however, refer the read- 
er to the work of the pious and learned l)can Pri- 
deanx, on “ The Old and Xew Testament connected,” a 
work which is one of the literary omamerts of the last 
century. He will also find the subject more recently 
and exhaustively discussed by Bishop Colenso. The 
following paragraphs will convey a sufficiently distinct 
impression of the present state of the controversy : 



THE pei;tateuch. 




The Pentateuch is affirmed to have been written by' 
Moses, under the influence of divine inspiration. Coni 
sidered thus, as a record vouchsafed and dictated by the 
Almighty, it commands not only scientiflc but universal 
consent. • 

But here, in the flrst place, it may be demanded. 
Who or what is it that has put forth this great claim in 
its behalf r 

Not the work itself. It nowhere claims the author- 
ship of one man, or makes the impious declaration that 
it is the writing of Almighty God. 

Not until after the second century was there any 
such extravagant demand on human credulity. It ori- 
ginated, not among the higher ranks of Christian phi- 
losophers, but among the more fervid Fathers of the 
Church, whose own writings prove them to have been 
unlearned and uncritical persons. 

Every age, from the second centuiy to our times, has 
offered men of great ability, both Christian and Jewish, 
who have altogether repudiated these claims. Their de- 
cision has been founded upon the intrinsic evidence of 
the books themselves. These furnish plain indications 
of. at least two distinct authors, who have been respec- 
tively termed Elohistic and Jehovistic. Ilupfeld main- 
tains that the Jehovistic narrative bears marks-of hav- 
ing been a second original record, wholly independent 
of the Elohistic. The two sources from which the nar- 
ratives have been derived are, in many respects, contra- 
dictory of each other. Moreover, it is asserted tliat 
the books of*the Pentateuch are never ascribed to Moses 
in the inscriptions of Hebrew manuscripts, or in printed 
copies of the Hebrew Bible, nor are they styled “ Books 
of Moses” in tlie Septuagint or Vulgate, but only in 
modern translations. 



THE PENTATEUCH. 


221 


It is clear that they cannot he imputed to the sole 
authorship of Moses, since they record his death. It is 
dear that they were not written until many hundred 
years, after that event, since they contain references to 
facts which did not occur until after the establishment 
of the government of kings among the Jews. 

No man may dare to impute them to the inspiration 
of Almighty God — their inconsistencies, incongruities, 
contradictions, and impossibilities, as exposed by many 
learned and pious modems, both German and English, 
are so great. It is the decision of these critics that 
Genesis is a narrative based upon legends ; that Exodus 
is not historically trae ; that the whole Pentateuch is 
nnhistoric and non-Mosaic ; it contains the most extraor- 
dinary contradictions and impossibilities, sufficient to 
involve the credibility of the whole — imperfections so 
many and so conspicuous that they would destroy the 
authenticity of any modern historical work. 

Hengstenberg, in his “ Dissertations on the Genuine- 
ness of the Pentateuch,” says : “ It is the tmavdidablc 
fate of a spurious historical work of any length to bo 
involved in contradictions. Thi.s must be the case to a 
very great extent with the Pentateuch, if it be not gen- 
nine. If the Pentateuch is spurious, its histories and 
laws have been fabricated in successive portions, and 
were committed to writing in the course of many cen- 
turies by different individuals. From such a mode of 
origination, a mass of contradictions is inseparable, and 
the improving hand of a later editor could never bo 
capable of entirely obliterating them.” 

To the above conclusions I may add that we are 
expressly told by Ezra (Esdras ii. 14) that he Irim- 
self, aided by five other persons, wrote these books in 
the space of forty days. lie says that at the time 



222 


THE PENTATEUCH. 


of the Babylonian captivity the ancient sacred writings 
of the JeWs were burnt, and gives a particular detail of 
the circumstances under which these were composed. 
He sets forth that he undertook to write all that had 
been done in the world since the beginning. * It may 
be said that the books of Esdras are apocryphal, btlt 
in return it may be demanded. Has that conclusion been 
reached on evidence that will withstand modem criti- 
cism? In the early ages of Christianity, when the 
story of the fall of man was not considered as essential 
to the Christian system, and the doctrine of the atone- 
ment had not attained that precision which Anselm 
eventually gave it, it was veiy generally admitted by 
the Fathers of the Church that Ezra probably did so 
compose the Pentateuch. Thus St. Jerome says, “ Sive 
Mosem dicere volueris auctorem Pentateuchi, sive Es- 
dram ojusdem instauratorem operis, non recuso.” Cle- 
mens Alexandrinus says that when these books had 
been destroyed in the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar, 
Esdras*, having become inspired prophetically, repro- 
duced them. Irenmus says the same. 

The incidents contained in Genesis, from the first 
to the tenth chapters inclusive (chapters which, in their 
bearing upon science, are of more importance than othei 
portions of the Pentateuch), have been obviously com- 
piled from short, fragmentary legends of various author- 
ship. To the critical eye they all, however, present 
peculiarities which demonstrate that they were written 
on the banks of the Euphrates, and not in the Desert of 
Arabia. Th(jy contain many Clualdaisms. An Egyptian 
would not speak of the Mediterranean Sea as being west 
of hihi, an Assyrian would. Their scenery and machineiy, 
if such expressions may with propriety be used, are al- 
tc^ther Assyrian, not Egyptian. They were such rec- 



ASSYRIAN TILE RECORDS. 


223 


orfs ais one might expect to meet with in the cuneiform 
impreesione of the tile libraries of the Mesopotamian 
kings. It is aflSnned that one such legend, that of the 
Deluge, has already been exhumed, and it is not beyond 
the bouniis of probability that the remainder may in 
like manner be obtained. 

From such Assyrian sources, the legends 9f the crea- 
tion of the earth and heaven, the garden of Eden, the 
making of man from clay, and of woman from one of 
bis ribs, the temptation by the serpent, the naming of 
animals, the cherubim and flaming sword, the Deluge 
and the ark, the drying up of the waters by the wind, 
the building of the Tower of Babel, and the confusion 
of tongues, were obtained by Ezra. He commences ab- 
ruptly the proper history of the Jews in the eleventh 
chapter. At that point his universal history ceases ; he 
occupies himself with the story of one family, the de- 
scendants of Shorn. 

It is of this restriction that the Duke of Argyll, in 
his book on “ Primeval Man,” very graphically says : 
“In the genealogy of the family of Shorn wo have a list 
of names which are names, and nothing more to us. It 
is a genealogy which neither docs, nor pretends to do, 
more than to trace the order of succession among a few 
families only, out of the millions then already existing 
in the world. Nothing but this order of succession is 
given, nor is it at all certain that this order is consecutive 
or complete. Nothing is told us of all that lay behind 
that curtain of thick darkness, iu front of which these 
names are made to pass ; and yet there are^ as it wero, 
momentary liftings, through which we have glimpses 
of great movements which were going on, and had been 
long going on beyond. No shapes are distinctly seen. 
Even the direction of those movements can only bo 



224 DIVERSE AUTUORSHIP OF TUE PENTATEUCH. 


guessed. But voices are heard which are as the voices 
of many waters.” I agree in the opinion of Hupfeld^ 
that the discovery that the Pentateuch is put together 
out of various sources, or original documents, is beyond 
all doubt not only one of the most important* and most 
pregnant with consequences for the interpretation bf 
the historical books of the Old Testament, or rather for 
the whole of theology and history, but it is also one of 
the most certain discoveries which have been made in 
the domain of criticism and the history of literature. 
Whatever the anticritical party may bring forward to 
the contrary, it will maintain itself, and not retrograde 
again through any thing, so long as there exists sucli a 
thing as criticism ; and it will not be easy for a reader 
upon the stage of culture on which we stand in the 
present day, if he goes to the examination unpreju- 
diced, and with an uncorrupted power of appreciating 
the truth, to be able to ward off its influence.” 

What then ? shall we give up these books ? Does not 
tlie admission that the narrative of the fall in Edeii is 
legendary carry with it the surrender of that most sol- 
emn and sacred of Christian doctrines, the atonement } 

. Let us reflect on this 1 Christianity, in its earliest 
days, when it was converting and conquering the world, 
knew little or nothing about that doctrine. W e have 
seen that, in his Apology,” Tertullian did not think 
it worth his while to mention it. It originated among 
the Gnostic heretics. It was not admitted by the Alex- 
andrian theological school. It was never prominently 
advanced by*tlie Fatliers. It was not brought into its 
present commanding position until the time of Anselm. 
Philo JudsBUS speaks of the story of the fall as symboli- 
cal ; Origen regarded it as an allegory. Perhaps some 
of the Protestant churches may, with reason, be accused 



INFALLIBILITY. 


225 


of inconsistency, since in part they consider it as myth- 
ical,’ in part real. But, if, \vith them, we admit that the 
serpent is symbolical of Satan, docs not that cast an air 
of allegory over the whole narrative ? 

It is t& be regretted that the Cliristian Church has 
burdened itself -with the defense, of these books, and 
voluntarily made itself answerable for their manifest 
contradictions and en^ors. Their vindication, if it were 
possible, should have been resigned to the Jews, among 
whom they originated, and by whom they have been 
transmitted to us. Still more, it is to be deeply regret- 
ted that the Pentateuch, a production so imperfect as 
to be unable to stand the touch of modern criticism, 
should be put forth as the arbiter of science. Let it bo 
remembered that the exposure of the true character of 
these books has been made, not by captious enemies, 
but by pious and learned ehurchinen, some of them of 
the highest dignity. 

While thtis the Protestant churches have insisted on 
the acknowledgment of the Scriptures as the criterion 
of truth, the Catholic has, in our own times, declared 
the infallibility of the pope. It may be said that this 
infallibility applies only to moral or religious things ; 
but where shall the line of separation be <lrawn ? Omnis- 
cience tonnot be limited to a restricted grouj) of ques- 
tions; in its very nature it implies the knowledge of all, 
and infallibility means omniscience. 

Doubtless, if the fundamental principles of Italian 
Christianity be admitted, their logical issue is an infal- 
lible pope. There is no need to dwell on*Uic unphilp- 
sophical nature of this conception ; it is <lcstroycd by 
an examination of the political history of the papacy, 
and the biography of the popes. The fonner exhibits 
all the errors and mistakes to wdiich institutions of a 

Q 



226 


INFALLIBILITY. 


confessedly human character have been f otmd liable ; the 
latter is only too frequently a Btory of sin and shame. * 

It was not possible that the authoritative promulga- 
tion of the dogma of papal infallibility should meet 
among enlightened Catholics universal acceptance. Se- 
rious and wide-spread dissent has been produced. ’'A 
doctrine so revolting to common-sense could not find 
any other result. There are many who aflSrm that, if 
infallibility exists anywhere, it is in oecumenical coun. 
cils, and yet such councils have not always agreed with 
each other. There are also many who remember that 
coimcils have deposed poises, and have passed judgment 
on their clamors and contentions. Not without reason 
do Protestants demand, What proof can be given that 
infallibility exists in the Church at all ? what proof is 
there that the Church has ever been fairly or justly 
represented in any council ? and why should the truth 
be ascertained by the vote of a majority rather than by 
that of a minority ? IIow often it ' has happened that 
one man, standing at the right point of view, has de- 
scried the truth, and, after having been denounced and 
persecuted by all others, they have eventually been con- 
strained to adopt his declarations ! Of many great dis- 
coveries, has not this been the history ? 

It is not for Science to compose these contesting 
claims ; it is not for her to determine whether the crite- 
rion of truth for the religious man shall be found in 
the Bible, or in the oecumenical council, or in the pope. 
She only asks the right, which she so willingly accords 
to others, of* adopting a criterion of her own. If she 
regards unhistorical legends wdth disdain ; if she consid- 
ers the vote of a majority in the ascertainment of truth 
with supreme indifference; if she leaves the claim of 
infallibility in any human being to be vindicated by the 



TUlii VUliUMiSi UJf' JNATUJtUS. 


227 


stem logic of co mi n g events — the cold impassiveness 
^'hich in these matters she maintains is what she dis- 
plays toward her own doctrines. Without hesitation 
ghe would give up the theories of gravitation or undu- 
lations, ifshe found that they were irreconcilable with 
fafcts. For her the volume of inspimtion is the book 
of Nature, of which the open scroll is ever spread forth 
before the eyes of every man. Confronting all, it needs 
no societies for its dissemination. Infinite in extent, 
eternal in duration, human ambition and human fanati- 
cism have never been able to tamper with it. On the 
earth it is illustrated by all that is magnificent and 
beautiful, on the heavens its letters are suns and worlds. 



CHAPTEK IX. 


CONTROVERSY RESPECTJTNG THE GOVERNMENT OF THE 
UNIVERSE. 


There are two concept hn» of the government of the world: 1 . Jig Provi- 
dencc; 2 . Jig Imw. — The fotmier maintained by the priesthood. — Sketch 
of the introduction of the latter. 

Kejder discovers the laws that preside over the solar system.— Ilis works are 
denounced by papal autleorUy, — The foundations of mechanical phi- 
losophy are laid by Da Vinci . — Galileo discovers the fundamental lairn 
of Dynamics. — Newton applies them to the rnove^nents of the celestial 
ItodieSy and shows that the solar system is governed bg mnthemalieal 
necessity.— I/erschel extends that conclusion to the universe. — The 
nebular hi/pothesis. — Theological exceptions to it. 

Evidences of the control of law in the constmetion of the earthy and in the 
development of the animal and plant series . — They arose by Evolu- 
tion^ not by Creation. 

The reign of law is exhibited by the historic career of human societies^ and 
in the case of individual man. 

Partial adojdion of this view by some of the Refoymed Churches. 

Two interpretations may be given of the mode of 
government of the world. It may be by incessant di- 
vine inteiwentions, or by the operation of nnvarjdng law. 

To the adoption of ^ the former a priesthood will al- 
ways incliiif^, since it must desire to be considered as 
standing between the prayer of the votarj' and the provi- 
dential act. Its importance is magnified by the power 
it claims of determining what that act shall be. In the 
pre-Christian (Roman) religion, the grand office of the 



GOVERNMENT BY LAW. 


229 


priesthood was the discovery of future events by oracles, 
om^ns, or an inspection of the entrails of animals, and 
by the offering of sacrifices to propitiate the gods. In 
the later, the Christian times, a higher power was 
claimed ;• the clergy asserting that, by their interces- 
s'ons, they could regulate the course of affairs, avert 
dangers, secure benefits, work miracles, and even change 
the order of Nature. 

Not without reason, therefore, did they look upon 
the doctrine of government by unvarying law with dis- 
favor. It seemed to depreciate their dignity, to lessen 
their importance. To them there was something shock- 
ing ill a God wdio cannot be swayed by human entreaty, 
a cold, passionless divinity — something frightful in fa- 
talism, destiny. 

Ihit the orderly movement of the heavens could not 
fail in all ages to make a deep impression on thouglit- 
fiil observers — the rising and setting of the sun; tin? 
increasing or diminishing light of the day ; the waxing 
and waning of the moon ; the return of the seasons in 
tlieir proper courses ; the measured march of the wander- 
ing planets in the sky — what are all these, and a thou- 
sand such, but manifestations of an orderly and un- 
changing procession of events? The faith of early oil- 
servers in this inteqiretation may perliaps have been 
shaken by the occurrence of such a jdienoinenon as an 
eclipse, a sudden and mysterious breach of the ordinary 
course of natural events ; but it would be resumed in 
tenfold strength as soon as the discovery was made that 
eclipses themselves recur, and lAay be prc^i(:te<l. 

Astronomical predictions of all kinds *depend ujfon 
the admission of this fact — that there never hai^becn 
and never will lie any intervention in the operation of 
natural laws. The scientific philosopher atfirms that 



230 


KEPLER. 


the condition of the world at any given moment is the 
direct result of its condition in the preceding moment^ 
and the direct cause of its condition in the subsequent 
moment. Law and chance are only different names for 
mechanical necessity. 

About fifty years after the death of Copemicas, 
John Kepler, a native of Wurtemberg, who had adopted 
the heliooeatric theory, and who was deeply impressed 
with the belief that relationships exist in the revolution.s 
of the planetary bodies round the sun, and that these if 
correctly examined would reveal the laws under which 
those movements take place, devoted himself to the 
study of the distances, times, and velocities of the plan- 
ets, and the form of their orbits. His method was, to 
submit the observations to which he had access, sucli 
as those of Tycho Bralie, to computations based first on 
one and then on another hypothesis, rejecting the hy- 
pothesis if he found that the calculations did not accord 
with the observations. The incredible labor he had 
imdergone (he says, “I considered, and I computed, 
until I almost went mad”) was at length rewarded, and 
in 1609 he published liis book, “ On the Motions of the 
Planet Mars.” In this he had attempted to reconcile 
the'movements of that planet to the hypothesis of eccen- 
trics and epicycles, but eventually discovered that the 
orbit of a planet is not a circle but an ellipse, the sun 
being in one of the foci, and that the areas swept over 
by a lino drawn from the planet to the sun are propor- 
tional to the times. These constitute what are now 
known as the^ first and* second laws of Kepler. Eight 
y^rs subsequently, he was rewarded by the discovery 
of a< third law, defining the relation between the mam 
distances of the planets from the sim and the times of 
their revolutions ; “ the squares of the periodic times arc 



KEPLER. 


proportional to the cubes of the distances.” In “An 
.Epitome of the Copemican System,” published in 1618, 
ho announced this law, and showed tliat it holds good 
for the satellites of Jupiter as regards their primary. 
Hence it»was inferred that the laws which preside over 
the grand movements of the solar system preside also 
over the less movements of its constituent parts. 

The conception of law which is unmistakably con- 
veyed by Kepler’s discoveries, and the evidence they 
gave in support of the heliocentric as against the geo ■ 
centric theory, could not fail to incur the reprehension 
of the Koman authorities. The congregation of the 
Index, therefore, when they denounced the Copemican 
system as utterly contrary to the Holy Scriptures, pro- 
hibited Kepler’s “ Epitome ” of that system. It was on 
this occasion that Kepler submitted his celebrated re- 
monstrance : “ Eighty years have elapsed during which 
the doctrines of Copernicus regarding the movement of 
the earth and the immobility of the sun have been pro- 
mulgated without hinderance, because it was deemed 
allowable to dispute concerning natural things, and to 
elucidate the works of God, and now that now testimony 
is discovered in proof of the truth of those doctrines — 
testimony which was not known to the spiritual judges 
— ^ye would prohibit the promulgation of the ti'ue sys- 
tem of the structure of the universe.” 

None of Kepler’s contemporaries believed the law 
of the areas, nor was it accepted until the publication 
of the “ Frincipia ” of Newton. In fact, no one in those 
times understo^ the philosophical meaning of Kepler’s 
laws. He himself did not foresee what they must In- 
evitably lead to. His mistakes showed how’ far h« was 
from perceiving their result. Thus he thought that 
each planet is the seat of an intelligent principle, and 



232 


KEPLER. 


that there is a relation between the magnitudes of th« 
orbits of the live principal planets and the five regular 
solids of geometry. At first he inclined to believe that 
the orbit of Mars is oval, nor was it until after a wea- 
risome study that he detected the grand truth, its ellip-' 
ticalform. An idea of the incorruptibility of the ceW 
tial objects had led to the adoption of the Aristotelian 
doctrine Of the perfection of circular motions, and to 
the belief that there were none but circular motions in 
the heavens. He bitterly complains of this as having 
been a fatal “thief of his time.” His philosophical 
daring is illustrated in his breaking through this time- 
honored tradition. 

In 6r>mc most imfiortant particulars Kepler antici- 
pated Newton. He was the first to give clear ideas re- 
specting gravity. lie says every particle of matter will 
i*cst until it is disturbed by some other particle — that 
the earth attracts a stone more than the stone attracts 
the earth, and that bodies move to each other in propor- 
tion to their masses ; that the earth Avould ascend to the 
moon one-fifty-fourth of the distance, and the moon 
would move toward the earth the other fifty-three. He 
nfiirms that the moon’s attraction causes the tides, and 
that the planets must impress irregularities on the 
moon’s motions. • 

The progress of astronomy is obviously divisible 
into throe periods ; 

1. The period of observation of the apparent mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies. 

2. The period of discoveiy of their real motions, and 
particirlarly of the laws of the planetary revolutions ; 
thidwas signally illustrated by Copernicus and Kepler. 

3. The period of the ascertainment of the causes of 
those laws. It was the epoch of Newton. , 



DA VINOL 


The passage of the second into the third period de- 
pended on the development of the Dynamical branch 
of mechanics, which had been in a stagnant condition 
from the time of Archimedes or the Alexandrian 
School. • 

In Christian Europe there had not been a cultiva- 
tor of mechanical philosophy until Leonardo, da Vinci, 
who was bom a. d. 1452. To him, and not to Lord 
Bacon, mugt be attributed the renaissance of science. 
Bacon was not only ignorent of mathematics, but de- 
preciated its application to physical inquiries. Hc 
contemptuously rejected the Copernican system, alleg- 
ing absurd objections to it. While Galileo was on the 
brink of his great telescopic discbveries. Bacon was pub- 
lisliing doubts as to the utility of instmments in scien- 
tific investigations. To ascribe the inductive method to 
hiin is to ignore histoiy. Ilis fanciful philosophical 
suggestions have never been of the slightest practical 
use. No one has ever thought of employing them. 
Except among English readers, his name is almost un- 
known. 

To Da Vinci I shall have occasion to allude more 
particularly on a subsequent page. Of his works still 
remaining in manuscript, two volumes arc at Milan, and 
one iiL Paris, careied there by Napoleon. After an in- 
terval of about seventy years. Da Vinci was followed by 
the Dutch engineer, Stevinus, whose work on the i)rin- 
ciples of equilibrium was published in 1586. Six years 
afterward appeared Galileo’s treatise on mechanics. 

To this great Italian is dud the estab]jahment of tho 
three fundamental laws of dynamics, kno^ as the L&ws 
of Motion. 

The consequences of the establishment of these laws 
were very important. 



234 


GALILEO. 


It had been supposed that continuous movements, 
such, for instance, as those of the celestial bodies, coW 
only be maintained by a perpetual consumption and per- 
petual application of force, but the first of Galileo’s laws 
declared that every body will persevere in its state of 
rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, until it u 
compelled to change that state by disturbing forces. A 
clear perc^ion of this fundamental principle is essen- 
tial to a comprehension of the elementary facts of 
physical astronomy. Since all the motions that we wit- 
ness taking place on the surface of the earth soon come 
to an end, we are led to infer that rest is the natural 
condition of things. We have made, then, a very great 
advance when we have become satisfied that a body is 
equally indifferent to rest as to motion, and that it 
equally perseveres in either state until disturbing forces 
are applied. Such disturbing forces in the case of com- 
mon movements are friction and the resistance of tho 
air. When no such resistances exist, movement must be 
perpetual, as is tlie case with the heavenly bodies, which 
are moving in a void. 

Forces, no matter what their difference of magni- 
tude may bo, will exert their full influence conjointly, 
each as though tho other did not exist. Thus, when a 
ball is suffered to drop from the mouth of a cannon, it 
falls to tho ground in a certain interval of time through 
the influence of gravity upon it. If, then, it be fired 
from the cannon, though now it may be projected some 
thoiisands of feet in a second, the effect of gravity upon 
it will be prqpisely the * same as before. In the inter- 
mingling of ‘forces there is no deterioration ; each pro- 
duces its own specific effect. 

In the latter half of the seventeenth century, through 
the works of Borclli, Ilooke, and Iluyghens, it had be- 



NEWTON. 


235 


oome plain tliat circular motions could be accounted for 
by the laws of Galileo. Borelli, treating of the mo- 
tions of Jupiter^s satellites, shows how a circular move- 
ment may arise under the influence of a central force. 
Hooke exhibited the inflection of a direct motion into a 
circular by a supervening central attraction. 

The year 1687 presents, not only an epoch in Euro- 
pean science, but also in the intellectual devfifopment of 
man. It is marked by the publication of the Prin- 
cipia” of Newton, an incomparable, an immortal 
work. 

On the principle that all bodies attract each other 
with forces directly as their masses, and inversely as the 
squares of their distances, Newton showed that all the 
movements of the celestial bodies may be accounted for, 
iind that Kepler’s laws might all have been predicted — 
the elliptic motions — tlic described areas — the relation 
d£ the times and distances. As we have seen, Newton’s 
contemporaries had perceived how circular motions 
oulcl be explained ; that was a special case, but Newton 
furnished the solution of the general problem, contain- 
ng all special cases of motion in circles, ellipses, para- 
X)las, hyperbolas — that is, in all the conic sections. 

The Alexandrian mathematicians had Bho\vn that the 
lirection of movement of falling bodies is toward the 
lentrc of the earth. Newton proved that this must 
lecessarily be the cjise, the general effect of the attrac- 
ion of all the particles of a sphere being tlie same as 
f they were all concentrated in its centre. 

To this central force, thus determining^ the fall of 
KKiies, the designation of gravity was given. Up to 
his time, no one, except Kepler, had considered hov^ far 
^ influence reached. It seemed to Newton possible 
hat it might extend far as the moon, and be the 



236 


UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION. 


force that deflects her from a rectilinear path, and 
makes her revolve in her orbit round the earth.* ft 
was easy to compute, on the principle of the law of 
inverse squares, whether the earth’s attraction was sufiS- 
cient to produce the observed effect. Employing the 
measures of the size of the earth accessible at the tiifie, 
Newton found that the moon’s deflection was only thir- 
teen feet in a minute ; whereas, if his hypothesis of grav- 
itation were true, it should bo fifteen feet. But in 
1669 Picard, as we have seen, executed the measure- 
ment of a degree more carefully than had previously 
been done ; this changed the estimate of the magnitude 
of the earth, and, therefore, of the distance of the moon ; 
and, Newton’s attention having been directed to it hy 
some discussions that took place at the Royal Society in 
1679, he obtained Picard’s results, went home, took out 
his old papers, and resumed his calculations. As tliey 
drew to a close, he became so much agitated that lie 
was obliged to desire a friend to finish them. The ex- 
pected coincidence was established. It was proved that 
the moon is retained in her orbit and made to revolve 
round the earth by the force of terrestrial gravity. Tlie 
genii of Kepler had given place to the vortices of Dev 
cartes, and these in their turn to the central force of 
Newton. 

In like manner the earth, and each of the planets, 
is made to move in an elliptic orbit round the sun by 
his attractive force, and perturbations arise by reason 
of the disturbing action of the planetary masses on one 
another. Iv^iow ing the masses and the distances, the>c 
disturbances may be computed. Liiter astronomers have 
even succeeded with the inverse problem, that is, know- 
ing the perturbations or disturbances, to find the place 
and the mass of the disturbing body. Thus, from the 



NEWTON. 


237 


deviations of Uranus from bis tbeoretical position, tlie 
iiscoveiy of Neptune was accomplished. 

Newton’s merit consisted in this, that he applied the 
Jaws of dynamics to the movements of the celestial 
bodies, and insisted that scientific theories must be sub- 
stantiated by the agreement of observations with calcu- 
lations. 

■\Vlien Kepler announced his three laws,* Ihey were 
received with condemnation by the spiritual authorities, 
not because of any eiTor they were supposed to present 
or to contain, but partly because they gave support to 
the Copemican system, and partly because it was judged 
ine.\pedient to admit the prevalence of law of any kind 
as opposed to providential intcn’cntion. The world 
was regarded as the theatre in which the divine wdll w'as 
daily displayed ; it was considered derogatory to the ma- 
jesty of God that that will should be fettered in any way. 
The power of the clergy was chiefly manifested in the 
influence they were alleged to possess in changing hi.- 
arbitrary' dcteiminations. It was thus that they could 
abate the baleful action of comets, secure fine weather oi 
rain, prevent eclipses, and, arresting the course of Na- 
ture, work all manner of miracles; it was thus that the 
shadow had been made to go hack on the dial, and the 
sim and the moon stopped ia mid-career. 

In the century preceding the epoch of Newton, a 
great religious and political revolution had taken place 
— the Keformation. Though its clfect had not been tlve 
securing of complete liberty for thought, it had wcak- 
oned many of tlie old ecclesiastical bondif.. In the rp- 
formed countries there was no ])ow’er to e.xpress a con- 
demnation of Newton's works, and among the clergy 
there was no disposition to give themselves any concern 
alx)ut the matter. At first the attention of the Protes- 



238 


THE HEBSCHELS. 


taut was engrossed by the movements of his great enemy 
the Catholic, and when that source of disquietude cea^’ 
and the inevitable partitions of the Eeformation arose, 
that attention was fastened upon the rival and antag- 
onistic Churches. The Lutheran, the Calvinist, the* 
Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, had something more 
urgent on hand than Newton’s mathematical demon- 
strations. 

So, uncondemned, and indeed unobserved, in this 
clamor of fighting sects, Newton’s grand theory solidly 
established itself. Its philosophical significance was 
infinitely more momentous than the dogmas that these 
persons were quarreling about. It not only accepted 
the heliocentric theory and the laws discovered by Kep- 
ler, but it proved that, no matter what might be the 
weight of opposing ecclesiastical authority, the sun rmiM 
be the centre of our system, and that Kepler’s laws are 
the result of a mathematical necessity. It is impossible 
that they should be other than they are. 

But what is the meaning of all this ? Plainly that 
the solar system is not interru2>ted by providential inter- 
ventions, but is under the government of irreversible 
law — ^law that is itself the issue of mathematical neces- 
sity. 

The telescopic observations of Herschel I. sitisfied 
him that there are very many double stars — double 
not merely because they are accidentally in the same 
line of view, but because they are connected physically, 
revolving round each other. These observations were 
continued ap(d greatly e.\tended by Herschel II. The 
elements of the elliptic orbit of the double star f of the 
Great Bear were determined by Savary, its period being 
fifty-eight and one-quarter years ; those of another, <r 
Ooronee, were determined by Hind, its period being more 



NEBULAR HTPOTHESIS. 


239 


than seven hundred and thirty-six years. The orbital 
movement of these double suns in ellipses compels us 
to admit that the law of gravitation holds good far be- 
yond the boundaries of the solar system ; indeed, as far 
M the telescope can reach, it demonstrates the reign of 
law. D’Alembert, in the Introduction to the Encyclo- 
psedia, says: “ The universe is but a single fact ; it is only 
one great truth.” 

Shall we, then, conclude that the solar and the starry 
systems have been called into existence by God, and 
that he has then imposed upon them by his arbitrary 
will laws under the control of which it was liis pleasure 
that their movements should be made ? 

Or are there reasons for believing that these several 
systems came into existence not by such an arbitrary liat, 
but through the operation of law ? 

The following are some peculiarities displayed by 
the solar system as enumerated by I>aplace. All the 
planets and their satellites move m ellipses of such small 
eccentricity that they arc nearly circles. All the planets 
move in the same direction and nearly in the same 
plane. The movements of the satellites are in the same 
direction as those of the planets. The movements of 
rotation of the sun, of the planets, and the satellites, are 
in the *samc direction as their orbital motions, an<I in 
planes little different. 

It is impossible that so many coincidences could bo 
the result of chance ! Is it not plain that there must 
have been a common tie among all these bodies, that 
they are only parts of what must once havtv been a sin- 
gle mass ? ^ 

But if we admit that the substance of which the 
solar system consists once existed in a nebulous con- 
dition, and was in rotation, all the above peculiarities 



240 


NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 


follow as necessary mechanical consequences. Kay, 
more, the formation of planets, the foimation of sate)* 
lites and of asteroids, is accounted for. We see why 
the outer planets and satellites are larger than the in- 
terior ones ; why the larger planets rotate rapidly, and' 
the small ones slowly ; why of the satellites the oufer 
planets have more, the inner fewer. We are furnished 
with indications of the time of revolution of the planets 
in their orbits, and of the satellites in theirs ; we per- 
ceive the mode of formation of Saturn’s rings. We 
find an explanation of the physical condition of the sun, 
and the transitions of condition through which the earth 
and moon have passed, as indicated by their geology'. 

But two exceptions to the above peculiarities have 
been noted ; they are in the cases of Uranus and Isep 
tune. 

The existence of such a nebulous mass once admit- 
ted, all the rest follows as a matter of necessity. Is 
there not, however, a most serious objection in the way? 
Is not this to exclude Almighty God from the worlds 
ho has made ? 

First, we must be satisfied whether there is any solid 
evidence for admitting the existence of such a nebulous 
mass. 

The nebular hyxwthesis rests primarily on the tele- 
scopic discovery made by Hcrschcl I., that there arc 
scattered here and there in the heavens pale, gleaming 
patches of light, a few of w'hich are large enough to be 
visible to the naked eye. Of these, many may be re- 
sqlvcd by a .sufficient telescopic power into a con^ries 
of stars, but some, such as the great nebula in Orion, 
have resisted the best instruments hitherto made. 

It was asserted by tlioso who were indisposed to ac- 
cept the nebular hypothesis, that the non-resolution was 



NEBULAR nyPOTHESIS. 


241 


due to imperfection in the telescopes used. In these 
instruments two distinct functions may be observed: 
their light-gathering power depends on the diameter of 
their object mirror or lens, their defining power depends 
on the exquisite correctness of their optical surfaces. 
Grand instruments may possess the former quality in 
perfection by reason of their size, but the^ latter veiy 
imperfectly, eitfier through want of original configura- 
tion, or distortion arising from fiexure through their 
own weight. But, unless an instniment be perfect in 
this respect, as well as adequate in the other, it may fail 
to decompose a nebula into discrete points. 

Fortunately, however, other means for the settle- 
ment of this question are available. In 1846, it was 
discovered by the author of this book that the spectrum 
of an ignited solid is continuous — that is, lias neither 
dark nor bright lines. Fraunhofer had previously made 
known that the spectnim of ignited gases is discontin- 
uous. Here, then, is the means of determining whether 
the light emitted by a given nebula comes from an in- 
candescent gas, or from a congeries of ignited solids, 
stars, or suns. If its spectrum be discontinuous, it is u 
true nebula or gas ; if continuous, a congeries of stars. 

In 1864, Mr. Huggins made this examination in the 
case of a nebula in the constellation Draco. It proved 
to be gaseous. 

Subsequent observations have shown that, of sixty 
nebulae examined, nineteen give discontinuous or gas- 
eous spectra — the remainder continuous ones. 

It may, therefore, be admitted that jihySical evideneo 
has at length been obtained, demonstrating the exist- 
ence of vast masses of matter in a gaseous condition, 
and at a temperature of incandescence. The hypothesis 
of Laplace has thus a firm basis. In such a nebular 

u 



242 


NEBULAB HTPOTHESIS. 


mass, cooling by radiation is a necessary incident, and 
condensation and rotation the inevitable results, 
must be a separation of rings all lying in one plane, a 
generation of planets and satellites all rotating 
a central sun and engirdling globes. From* a chaotic 
mass, through the operation of natural laws, an oigaa 
ized system has been produced. An integration oi 
matter into worlds has taken place through a decline 
of heat. 

If such be the cosmogony of the solar system, such 
the genesis of the planetary worlds, we are constrainel 
to extend our views of the dominion of law, and to 
recognize its agency in the creation as well as in the 
conservation of the innumerable orbs tliat throng the 
universe. 

But, again, it may be asked : “ Is there not some- 
thing profoundly impious in this ? Are we not exclud- 
ing Almighty God from the world ho has made 1 ” 

We have often witnessed the formation of a cloud 
in a serene sky. A hazy point, barely perceptible — a 
little wreath of mist — increases in volume, and bcconiej 
darker and denser, until it obscures a large portion ol 
the heavens. It throws itself into fantastic shapes, it 
gathers a glory from the sun, is borne onward by tho 
wind, and, perhaps, as it gradually came, so it gradually 
disappears, melting away in tho untroubled air. 

Now, wo say that the little vesicles of which this 
cloud was composed arose from the condensation ol 
water-vapor preexisting in tho atmosphere, through re- 
duction of .temperature ; we show how they assumed 
the^form they present. We assign optical reasons for 
the brightness or blackness of the cloud ; we explain, 
on mechanical piinciples, its drifting before the wind ; 
for its disappearance we account on the principles of 



NEBULAE HYPOTOESIS. 


243 


chemistry. It never occurs to us to invoke the inter- 
|)08i*tion of the Almighty in the production and fashion- 
ing of this fugitive form. We explain all the facts con- 
nected with it by physical laws, and perhaps should 
reverentijTlly hesitate to call into operation the finger 
0^ God. 

But the universe is nothing more than such a cloud 

a cloud of suns and worlds. Supremely giand though 
it may seem to us, to the Infinite and Eternal Intellect 
it is no more than a fieeting mist. If there be a multi- 
plicity of worlds in infinite space, there is also a suc- 
cession of worlds in infinite time. As one after another 
cloud replaces cloud in the skies, so this starry system, 
the universe, is the successor of countless others that 
have preceded it — the predecessor of countless others 
that will follow. There is an unceasing metamorpho- 
sis, a sequence of events, without beginning or end. 

If, on physical principles, wc account for minor me- 
teorological incidents, mists and clouds, is it not permis- 
sible for us to appeal to the same principle in the origin 
of world-systems and universes, which are only clouds 
on a space-scale somewhat larger, mists on a time-scale 
somewhat less transient ? Can any man place the line 
which botmds the physical on one side, tliu supernatural 
on the dther ? Do not our estimates of the extent and 
the duration of things depend altogether on our point 
of view t Were we set in the midst of the great nebula 
of Orion, how transcendently magnificent the scene ! The 
vast transformations, the condensations of a fieiy mist 
into worlds, might seem worthy of the imm'hdiate presi 
once, the supervision of God ; here, at our distant gta- 
tion, where millions of miles are inappreciable to our 
oyes, and suns seem no bigger than motes in the air, 
that nebula is more insignificant than the faintest cloud. 



244 


DECLINE OF HEAT IN TIIE BARTH. 


Galileo, in his description of tlie constellation of Orion, 
did not think it worth while so much as to mention it. 
The most rigorous theologian of those days would Lavu 
seen nothing to blame in imputing its origin to second- 
aiy causes, nothing irreligious in failing to Invoke the 
arbitrary interference of God in its metamorphoses. 
such be tl^e conclusion to which we come respecting it, 
what would be the conclusion to which an Intelligence 
seated in it might come respecting us ? It occupies an 
extent of space millions of times greater than that of our 
solar system; we are invisible from it, and therefore 
absolutely insignificant. Would such an Intelligence 
think it necessary to require for onr origin and main- 
tenance the immediate intervention of God? 

From the solar system let us descend to what is still 
more insignificant — a little portion of it ; let us descend 
to our own earth. In the lapse of time it has expe- 
rienced great changes. Have these been due to inces- 
sant divine interventions, or to the continuous operation 
of unfailing law? The aspect of Nature perpetually 
varies under our eyes, still more grandly and strikingly 
has it altered in geological times. But the laws guiding 
those changes never exhibit the slightest variation. la 
the midst of immense vicissitudes they are immutable. 
The present order of things is only a link in a vast con- 
nected chain reaching back to an incalculable past, and 
forward to an infinite future. 

There is evidence, geological and astronomical, that 
the tempwature of the earth and her satellite was iu 
thp remote past very much higher than it is now. A 
decline so slow as to be imperceptible at short intervals, 
but manifest enough in the course of many ages, has oe- 
cuiTed. The heat has been lost by radiation into space. 



COOLING TAKES PLACE UNDER LAW. 


245 


The cooling of a mass of any kind, no matter whether 
or small, is not discontinuous ; it does not go on by 
fits and starts ; it takes place under the operation of a 
mathematical law, though for such mighty changes as 
'are here contemplated neither the formula of Newton, 
nor that of Dulong and Petit, may apply. It signifies 
nothing that periods of partial decline, glacial periods, 
or others of temporary elevation, have been intercalated ; 
it signifies nothing whether these variations may have 
arisen from topogi’aphical variations, as those of level, 
or from periodicities in the radiation of the sun. A 
periodical sun would act as a mere perturbation in the 
gradual decline of heat. The perturbations of the 
]>lanetary motions are a confirmation, not a dispi’oof, of 
gravity. 

Now, such a decline of temperature must have been 
attended by innumerable changes of a physical character 
ill our globe. Her dimensions must have diminished 
lluough contraction, the length of her day must have 
lessened, her surface must have collapsed, and fractures 
taken place along the lines of lea.st resistance ; the density 
of the sea must have increased, its volume must have 
become less ; the constitution of the atmosphere must 
have varied, especially in the amount of water-vapor 
and carbonic acid that it contained ; the barometric press- 
ure must have declined. 

These changes, and very many more that might bo 
mentioned, must have taken place notin a discontinuous 
but in an orderly manner, since the master-fact, the 
decline of heat, that was causing them, was^tself follow- 
ing a mathematical law. 

But not alone did lifeless Nature submit to fliese 
inevitable mutations; living Nature was also simultane- 
ously affected. 



246 CONSEQUENT VABUTIONS OF ORGANISMS. 


An organic form of any kind, vegetable or atiinn ^) 
■will remain nncbanged only bo long as the enviroiunent 
in which it is placed remains unchanged. Should an 
alteration in the environment occur, the organism will 
either be modified or destroyed. 

Bestruction is more likely to happen as the changS 
in the environment is more sudden; modification or 
transformafibn is more possible as that chmige is more 
gradual. 

Since it is demonstrably certain that lifeless Nature 
has in the lapse of ages undergone vast modifications; 
since the crust of the earth, and the sea, and the atmos- 
phere, are no longer such as they once were; since the 
distribution of the land and the ocean and all manner 
of physical conditions have varied; since there have been 
such grand changes in the environment of living things 
on the surface of our planet — it necessarily follows that 
organic Nature must have passed through destructions 
and transformations in correspondence thereto. 

That such extinctions, such modifications, have taken 
place, how copious, how convincing, is the evidence ! 

Here, again, wo must observe that, since the disturb- 
ing agency was itself following a mathematical law, 
these its results must bo considered as following that law 
too. 

Such considerations, then, plainly force upon us the 
conclusion that the organic progress of the world has 
been guided by the operation of immutable law — not 
detennined by diseontinuous, disconnected, arbitrary in- 
terventions of- God. They incline us to view favorably 
the idea of transmutations of one form into another, 
rathcF than that of sudden creations. 

Creation implies an abrupt appearance, transforma- 
tion a gradual change. 



TBB DOOTRINH OP EVOLUTION. 


247 


In this manner is presented to oiir contemplation 
the great theory of Evolution. Every organic being 
has a place in a chain of events. It is not an isolated, 
a capricious fact, but an unavoidable phenomenon. It 
fi.18 its plitce in that vast, orderly concourse which has 
successively risen in the past, has introduced the pres- 
ent, and is preparing the way for a predestined future. 
From point to point in this vast progression 'there has 
been a gradual, a definite, a continuous unfolding, a 
resistless order of evolution. Bnt in the midst of these 
mighty changes stand forth immutable tlie laws that are 
dominating over all. 

If wo examine the introduction of any type of life 
in the animal series, we find that it is in accordance 
with transformation, not with creation. Its beginning 
is under an imperfect form in the midst of other forms, 
of which the time is nearly complete, and which are 
passing into extinction. By degrees, one species after 
another in succession more and more perfect arises, un- 
til, after many ages, a culmination is reached. F rom 
that there is, in like manner, a long, a gradual decline. 

Thus, though the mammal type of life is the charac- 
teristic of the Tertiary and post-Tcrtiary perio<ls, it does 
not suddenly make its appearance without premonition 
in those periods. Far back, in the Secondary, we find 
it under imperfect forms, struggling, as it were, to make 
good a foothold. At length it gains a predominanco 
nnder higher and better models. 

So, too, of reptiles, the characteristic type of life of 
the Secondary periotl. As we see in a disserving viow^ 
out of the fading outlines of a scene that is passing 
iway, the dim form of a new one emerging, which gAd- 
oally gains strength, reaches its culmination, and then 
melts away in some other that is displacing it, so rep- 



248 


DEVELOPMENT BY LAW. 


tile-life doubtfully appears, reaches its culmination, and 
gradually declines. In all this there is nothing abrupt) 
the changes shade into each other by insensible degrees. 

How could it be otherwise ? The hot-blooded ani- 
mals could not exist in an atmosphere so laden with* 
carbonic acid as was that of the primitive times. Bfct 
the removal of that noxious ingredient from the air 
by the lerfves of plants under the influence of sunlight, 
the enveloping of its carbon in the earth under the fomi 
of coal, the disengagement of its oxygen, permitted their 
life. As the atmosphere was thus modifled, the sea was 
involved in the change ; it surrendered a large part of its 
carbonic acid, and the limestone hitherto held in solu- 
tion by it was deposited in the solid form. For every 
equivalent of carbon buried in the earth, there was an 
equivalent of carbonate of lime separated from the sea 
— not necessarily in an amorphous condition, most fre- 
quently under an organic form. The sunshine kept up 
its work day by day, but there were demanded myriads 
of days for the work to be completed. It was a slow 
passage from a noxious to a purified atmosphere, and 
an equally slow passage from a cold-blooded to a hot- 
blooded type of life. But the physical changes were 
taking place under the control of law, and the organic 
transformations were not sudden or arbitrary providen- 
tial acts. They were the immediate, the inevitable con- 
sequences of the physical changes, and therefore, like 
them, the necessary issue of law. 

F or a more detailed consideration of this subject, I 
may refer tlio reader ' to Chapters I., II., VII., of the 
second book of my “ Treatise on Himian Physiology,” 
published in 1856. 

Is the world, then, governed by law or by provuden- 



DEVELOPMENT IN MAN. 


249 


tial interventions, abruptly breaking the proper sequence 
of 'events? 

To complete our view of this question, we turn 
finally to what, in one sense, is the most insignificant, 
*in another the most important, case that can bo consid- 
ei«d. Do human societies, in their historic career, 
exliibit the marks of a predetermined progress in an 
unavoidable track? Is there any evidence that the life 
of nations is under the control of immutable law ? 

May we conclude that, in society, as in the individ- 
ual man, parts never spring from nothing, but are evolved 
or developed from parts that are already in existence ? 

If any one should object to or deride the doctrine 
of the evolution or successive development of the ani- 
mated forms which constitute that unbroken organic 
chain reaching from the beginning of life on the globe 
to the present times, let him refiect that he has himself 
passed through modifications the counterpart of those 
lie disputes. For nine months his tj'pc of life was 
aquatic, and during that time he assumed, in succession, 
many distinct but correlated forms. At birth his type 
of life became aerial ; he began respiring the atmosjiher- 
ic air; new elements of food were supplied to him ; the 
mode of his nutrition changed ; but as yet he could see 
uotliing, hear nothing, notice nothing. Uy degrees 
conscious existence was assumed ; he became aware that 
there is an external woidd. In due time organs adapted to 
another change of food, the teeth, appeared, and a cliange 
of food ensued. He tlien pa-ssed through the stages of 
chUdhood and youth, his bodily form dcAfoloping, and 
M’ith it his intellectual powers. At about fifteen yeaVs, 
in consequence of the evolution which special parts of 
his system had attained, his moral character changed. 
Xew ideas, new passions, influenced him. And that 



250 


DEVELOPMENT IN HAN. 


that was the cause, and this the effect, is demonstrated 
when, by the skill of the surgeon, those parts have been 
interfet^ with. Nor does the development, the meta- 
morphosis, end here ; it requires many years for the body 
to reach its full perfection, many years for the mind. • 
A culmination is at length reached, and then there is i 
decline. I need not picture its mournful incidents— 
the corporeal, the intellectual enfeeblement. Perhaps 
there is little exaggeration in saying that in less than a 
century every human being on the face of the globe, if 
not cut oft' in an untimely manner, has passed through 
all these changes. 

Is there for each of us a providential intervention as 
we thus pass from stage to stage of life ? or shall we 
not rather believe that the countless myriads of human 
beings who have peopled the earth have been under the 
guidance of an unchanging, a universal law ? 

But individuals are the elementary constituents of 
communities — ^nations. They maintain therein a rela- 
tion like that which the particles of the body maintain 
to the body itself. These, introduced into it, commence 
and complete their function ; they die, and are dismissed. 

Like the individual, the nation comes into existence 
without its own knowledge, and dies without its own 
consent, often against its own will. National life differs 
in no particular from individual, except in this, that it 
is spread over a longer span, but no nation can escape its 
inevitable term. Each, if its history be well considered, 
shows its tiriie of infancy, its time of youth, its time of 
maturity, its time of decline, if its phases of life be com- 
pleted. 

In the phases of existence of all, so far as those 
phases are completed, there are common characteristics, 
and, as like accordances in individuals point out that all 



INTERVENTION AND LAW. 


251 


are living under a reign of law, we are justified in in- 
ferring that the course of nations, and indeed the prog- 
ress of humanity, does not take place in a chance or 
random way, that supernatural interventions never break 
file chain ‘of historic acts, that every historic event has 
its warrant in some preceding event, and gives war- 
rant to others that are to follow. 

But this conclusion is the essential princiille of Stoi- 
cism — ^that Grecian philosophical system which, as I 
have already said, offered a support in their hour of 
trial and an unwavering guide in the vicissitudes of life, 
not only to many illustrious Greeks, but also to some of 
the great philosophers, statesmen, generals, and emper- 
ors of Rome; a system which excluded chance from 
every thing, and asserted the direction of all events by 
irresistible necessity, to the promotion of perfect good ; 
11 system of earnestness, sternness, austerity, virtue — 
a protest in favor of the common-sense of mankind. 
And perhaps we shall not dissent from the remark of 
.Montesquieu, who afiirms that the destruction of the 
Stoics was a great calamity to the human race ; for they 
alone made great citizens, great men. 

To the principle of government by law, Latin Chris- 
tianity, in its papal fonn, is in absolute contradiction. 
The liistory of this branch of the Christian Church is 
almost a diary of miracles and supernatural interven- 
tions. These show that the supplications of holy men 
liave often arrested the coui*sc of Nature— if, indeed, 
there be any such course ; that images and pictures have 
worked wonders ; that bones, hairs, and other sacred rel- 
ics, have wrought miracles. The criterion or proof of 
the authenticity of many of these objects is, not an’un- 
challengeable record of their origin and histoiy, but an 
exhibition of their miracle-working powers. 



252 


INTERVEKTION AND LAW. 


Is not that a strange lo^c which finds proof of aa 
asserted fact in an inexplicable illustration of something 
else? 

Even in the darkest ages intelligent Christian men 
must have had misgivings as to these alleged providcn-* 
tial or miraculous interventions. There is a soleuAi 
grandeur in the orderly progress of Nature which pro- 
foundly iifi^resses us; and such is the character of con- 
tinuity in the events of our individual life that we in- 
stinctively doubt the occurrence of the supernatural in 
that of our neighbor. The intelligent man knows well 
that, for his personal behoof, the course of Nature lias 
never been checked ; for him no miracle has ever been 
worked ; he attributes justly every event of his life to 
some antecedent event ; this he looks upon as the cause, 
tliat as the consequence. "When it is affinned that, in 
liis neighbor’s behalf, such grand interventions have been 
vouchsafed, he cannot do otherwise than believe that his 
neighbor is either deceived, or practising deception. 

As might, then, have been anticipated, the Catho- 
lic doctrine of miraculous intervention received a rude 
shock at the time of the Reformation, when predestina- 
tion and election were upheld by some of the greatest 
theologians, and accepted by some of the greatest Prot 
cstant Churches. With stoical austerity Calvin declares : 
“Wo were elected from eternity, before the foundation 
of the world, from no merit of our own, but according 
to the purpose of the divine pleasure.” In affinning 
this, Calvin was resting on the belief that God has from 
all etemity«>decreed whatever comes to pass. Thus, 
after the lapse of many ages, were again emerging into 
profnincnce the ideas of the Basilidians and Valen- 
tinians, Christian sects of the second century, whose 
Gnostical views led to the engnrftment of the great 



PREDESTINATION. 


253 


doctrine of the Trinity upon Christianity. They assert- 
ed that all the actions of men are necessary, that even 
faith is a natural gift, to which men are forcibly deter- 
mined, and must therefore be saved, though their lives 
)}e ever so irregular. From the Supreme God all things 
proceeded. Thus, also, came into, prominence the views 
which were developed by Augustine in his work, “ Do 
dono perseverantim.” These were: that Gfod, by his 
arbitrary will, has selected certain persons without re- 
spect to foreseen faith or good works, and has infallibly 
ordained to bestow upon them etcmal happiness ; other 
persons, in like manner, he has condemned to eternal 
reprobation. The Sublapsarians believed that “God 
permitted the fall of Adam ; ” tlie Supralapsarians that 
“he predestinated it, with all its pernicious conse- 
quences, from all eternity, and that our first parents 
had no liberty from the beginning.’’ In this, these 
sectarians disregarded the remark of St. Augustine: 
“ Nefas est dicere Deum aliquid nisi bonum predosti- 
nare.” 

Is it true, then, that “predestination to eternal liajv 
piness is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, be- 
fore the foundations of tlic world were laid, he hath 
constantly decreed by his council, secret to us, to de- 
liver *from curse and damnation those whom he hath 
chosen out of mankind ? ” Is it true that of the hu- 
man family there arc some who, in view of no fault of 
their own. Almighty God has condemned Jo unending 
torture, eternal misery ? 

In 1595 the Lambeth Articles assertf/1 that “GJod 
from eternity hath predestinated certain men unto life ; 
certain ho hath reprobated.” In 1618 the Synod of 
Dort decided in favor of this view. It condemned the 
remonstrants against it, and treated them with such se- 



254 


PREDESTINATION. 


verity, that many of them had to flee to foreign conn 
tries. Even in the Church of England, as is manifested 
by its seventeenth Article of Faith, these doctrines have 
found favor. , 

Probably there was no point which brought do'y* 
from the Catholics on the Protestants severer condemna- 
tion than this, their partial acceptance of the govern- 
ment of the world by law. In all Reformed Europe 
miracles ceased. But, with the cessation of shrine-cure, 
relic-cure, great pecuniary proflts ended. Indeed, as is 
well known, it was the sale of indulgences that pro- 
voked the Reformation — indulgences which are essen- 
tially a permit from God for the practice of sin, condi- 
tioned on the payment of a certain sum of money to the 
priest. 

Philosophically, the Reformation implied a protest 
against the Catholic doctrine of incessant divine inter- 
vention in human affairs, invoked by sacerdotal agency; 
but this protest was far from being fully made by all 
the Reforming Churches. The evidence in behalf of 
government by law, which has of late years been offered 
by science, is received by many of them with suspicion, 
perhaps with dislike ; sentiments which, however, must 
eventually give way before the hourly-increasing weight 
of evidence. 

Shall we not, then, conclude with Cicero, who, 
quoted by Lactantius, says : “ One eternal and immu- 
table law embraces all things and all times T’ 



CHAPTER X, 


LATIN CHBISTIANITY IN RELATION TO MODERN OIVIH- 
ZATION. 


For more than a thoueand yean Latin Christianity controlled the inteUu 
gence of Europe^ and is responsible for tlie result. 

That result is manfested by the condition of the city of Lome at the lief- 
ormaiiony and by the condition of the Condinont of Europe in domes- 
tie and social life. — European nations suffered under the coexistence 
of a dual govemmeniy a spiritual and a temporal. — They were im- 
mersed in ignorancCy superstitiony discomfort. — Explanation of the 
failure of Catholicism. — Political history of the papacy: it was 
transmuted from a spiritual confederacy into an absolute monarchy. 
— Action of the College of Cardinals and the Curia. — Demoraliza- 
tion that ensued from the necessity of raising large revenues. 

The advantages accruing to Europe during the Catholic rule arose not from 
direct inUniiony but were incidental. 

77ie general result ts, that the political influence of Catholicism was preju- 
dicial to modern civilization. 

La^in Christianity is responsible for the condition 
and progress of Europe from the fourth to the sixteenth 
century. We have now to examine how it discharged 
its tinist. , 

It will be convenient to limit to the case of Europe 
w’hat has hero to be presented, tliougli, frjta the claim 
of the papacy to superhuman origin, and its demand for 
nniversal obedience, it should strictly be held to account 
for the condition of all mankind. Its inefficacy against 
the great and venerable religions of Southern and East- 



256 


ROME AT THE REFORMATION. 


em Asia would fumisli an important and. instructive 
theme for consideration, and lead us to the conclusioj 
that it has impressed itself only where Roman imperial 
influences have prevailed ; a political conclusion whicL, 
however, it contemptuously rejects. 

Doubtless at the inception of the Reformation there 
were many persons who ccrnpared tlie existing social 
condition*'with what it had been in ancient times. Mor- 
als had not changed, intelligence had not advanced, so- 
ciety had little improved. From the Eternal City itself 
its splendors had vanished. The marble streets, of 
which Augustus had once boasted, had disappeared. 
Temples, broken columns, and the long, arcaded vLsfcis 
of gigantic aqueducts bestriding the desolate Campagna, 
presented a mournful scene. From the uses to which 
they had been respectively put, the Capitol had been 
known as Goats’ Hill, and the site of the Roman Fo 
rum, whence laws had been is-sued to the world, as Cow>' 
Field. The palace of the Caesars was hidden by mouud' 
of earth, crested with flowering shrubs. The baths of 
Caracalla, with their porticoes, gardens, reservoirs, had 
long ago become useless through the destruction of their 
supplying aqueducts. On the ruins of that grand edi- 
fice, “ flowery glades and thickets of odoriferous trcc.< 
extended in ever-winding labyrinths upon immen.«e 
platforms, and dizzy ai'ches suspended in the air.” Of 
the Coliseum, the most colossal of Roman ruins, only 
about onc-;third remained. Once capable of accommo- 
dating nearly ninety thousand spectators, it had, in suc- 
cession, be^ turned into a fortress in the middle ages, 
and then into a stone-quarry to furnish material for the 
pataces of degenerate Roman princes. Some of the popes 
had occupied it as a woollen-mill, some as a saltpetre- 
factory ; some had planned the conversion of its mag- 



ROUE AT THE REFORMATION. 


257 


uixicent arcades into shops for tradesmen. The iron 
claiiips which bound its stones together had been stolen. 
The walls were fissured and falling. Even in our own 
times botanical works have been composed on the plants 
which have made this noble wreck their home. “ The 
Flora of the Coliseum” contains four hundred and 
twenty species. Among the ruins of classical buildings 
might be seen broken columns, cj'presses, and mouldy 
frescoes, dropping from the walls. Even the vegetable 
world participated in the melancholy change : the myrtle, 
which once flourished on the Aventinc, had nearly be- 
come extinct ; the laurel, which once gave its leaves to 
encircle the brows of emperors, had been replaced by 
i\ 7 — the companion of death. 

But perhaps it may be said the popes were not re- 
sponsible for all this. Let it be remembered that in 
less than one hundred and forty years the city had been 
successively taken by Alaric, Genseric, Ricimer, Viti- 
gos, Totila ; that many of its great edifices had been 
converted into defensive works. The acpicducts were 
destroyed by Vitiges, who ruined the Cainpagna ; the 
palace of the Caesars was ravaged by Totila ; then then; 
had been the Lombard sieges; then Robert Guisaard 
and his Normans had burnt the city from the Antonino 
Column to the Flaminian Gate, from the l^ateran to the 
Capitol ; then it was sacked and mutilated by the Con- 
stable Bourbon ; again and again it w.os floo«led by in- 
undations of the Tiber and shattered by earthquakes. 
We must, however, bear in mind the accusation of 
ilachiavelii, who says, in his “ History ot Florence,.” 
that nearly all the barbarian invasions of Italy were by 
the invitations of the pontiff.s, who called in tfiose 
hordes 1 It was not the Goth, nor the Vandal, nor the 
Noi-man, nor the Saracen, but the popes and their neph- 



258 


SOME AT THE REEOBHATIOy. 


ews, who produced fhe dilapidation of Bome ! Lin^g. 
kilns had been fed from the mins, classical build^gi 
had become ■ stone-quarries for the palaces of 
princes, and churches were decorated from the old 
temples. * ^ 

Churches decorated from the temples! It is for 
this and such as this that the popes must be held respon- 
sible. Sfiperb Corinthian colximns had been chiseled 
into images of the saints. Magnificent Egyptian obe- 
lisks had b&i dishonored by papal inscriptions. The 
Septizonium of Severos had been demolished to furnish 
materials for the building of St. Peter’s ; the bronze 
roof of the Pantheon had been melted into columns to 
ornament the apostle’s tomb. 

The great bell of Viterbo, in the tower of the Capi- 
tol, had announced the death of many a pope, and still 
desecration of the buildings and demoralization of the 
people went on. Papal Bome manifested no consider- 
ation, but rather hatred, for classical Bome. The pon- 
tiffs had been subordinates of the Byzantine sovereigns, 
then lieutenants of the F raukisli kings, then arbiters of 
Europe; their government had changed as much as 
those of any of the suiTOunding nations; there had 
been complete metamorphoses in its maxims, objects, 
qjaims. In one point only it &d never chan^d — in- 
tolerance. Claiming to be the centre of the religious 
life of Europe, it steadfastly refused to recognize any 
religious existence outside of itself, yet both in a polit- 
ical and theological sense it was rotten to the core, 
flrasmus a|ld Luther heard with amazement the blas- 
phemies and witnessed with a shudder the atheism of 
the* city. 

The historian Banke, to whom I am indebted for 
many of these facts, has depicted in a very graphic maU’ 



ITS POLITICAL CONOlTIOJr. 


2oV 

ner the demoralization of the great metropolis. The 
popes were, for the most part, at their election, aged 
men. Power was, therefore, incessantly passing into 
new hands. Every election was a revolution in pros- 
jj^ts an(f expectations. In a community where all 
might rise, where all might aspire to all, it necessarily 
followed that every man was occupied in thrijsting some 
other into the background. Though the population of 
the city at the inception of the Reformation had sunk 
to eighty thousand, there were vast crowd^f placemen, 
and still greater ones of aspirants for place. The suc- 
cessful occupant of the pontificate had thousands of oflices 
to give away — oflSces from many of which the incum- 
bents had been remorselessly ejected ; many had been 
created for the purpose of sale. The integrity and 
capacity of an applicant were never inquired into ; the 
points considered were, what services has ho rendered or 
can he render to the party ? how much can ho pay for 
the pref ennent ? An American reader can thoroughly 
realize this state of things. At every presidential elec- 
tion he witnesses similar acts. The election of a pope 
by the Conclave is not unlike the nomination of an 
American president by a convention. In both cases 
there are many offices to give away. 

William of Malmesbury says that in his day the Ro 
mans made a sale of whatever was righteous and sacred 
for gold. After his time there was no improvement ; 
the Church degenerated into an instrument for the ex- 
ploitation of money. Vast sums were collecto^ in Italy; 
vast sums were drawn under all manner ofr pretenses* 
from surrounding and reluctant countries. Of thgse 
the most nefarious was the sale of indulgences for the 
perpetration of sin. Italian religion had become the 
^rt of plundering the people. 



200 


SOCUI. CONDITION OF ROMK. 


For more than a thousand years the sovereign pon. 
tifis had been rulers of the city. True, it had witnessed 
many scenes of devastation for which they were not re- 
sponsible ; but they were responsible for this, that they 
had never made any vigorous, any persistent* effort fyr 
its material, its moral improvement. Instead of being 
in these respects an exemplar for the imitation of the 
world, it became an exemplar of a condition that ought 
to be shunned. Things steadily went on from bad to 
worse, until ' at the epoch of the Reformation no pious 
stranger could visit it without being shocked. 

The papacy, repudiating science as absolutely incom 
patible with its pretensions, had in later years addressed 
itself to the encouragement of art. But music and 
painting, though they may be exquisite adornments of 
life, contain no living force that can develop a weak 
nation into a strong one ; nothing that can permancntlv 
assure the material well-being or happiness of communi- 
ties ; and hence at the time of the Reformation, to one 
who thoughtfully considered her condition, Rome had 
lost all living energy. She was no longer the arbiter of 
the physical or the religious progress of the world. For 
the progressive maxims of the republic and the empire, 
she had substituted the stationary maxims of the papacy. 
She had the appearance of piety and the possession of art. 
In this she resembled one of those friar-corpses whicli 
we still see in their brown cowls in the vaults of the 
Cappuccini, with a breviary or some withered flowers in 
its hands. . 

From wiis view of the Eternal City, this survey of 
what Latin Christianity had done for Rome itself, let us 
turn to the whole European Continent. Let us try to 
determine tlie true value of the system that was gpiiding 
society ; let us judge it by its fruits. 



POPULATION. 


261 


The condition of nations as to their well-being is 
fnost precisely represented by the variations of their 
population. Forms of government have very little 
influence on population, but policy may control it com- 
pletely. • 

It has been very satisfactorily shown by authors who 
have given attention to the subject, that the variations 
of population depend upon the interbalancing of the 
generative force of society and the resistances to life. 

By the generative force of society is meant that in- 
stinct which manifests itself in the multiplication of the 
race. To some extent it depends on climate ; but, since 
the climate of Europe did not sensibly change between 
the fourth and the sixteenth centuries, we may regard 
this force as having been, on that continent, during the 
period under consideration, invariable. 

By the resistances to life is meant whatever tends 
to make individual existence more difficult of support. 
Among such may be enimieratcd insufficient food, inade- 
quate clothing, imperfect shelter. 

It is also known that, if the resistances become in- 
appreciable, the generative force will double a popula- 
tion in twenty-five years. 

The resistances operate in two modes : 1 . Physically ; 
since they diminish the number of births, and shorten 
the term of the life of all. 2. Intellectually ; since, in 
a moral, and particularly in a religious ccunmunity, they 
postpone marriage, by causing individuals to decline its 
responsibilities until they feel that they are* competent 
to meet the charges and cares of a family. ^ Hence the 
explanation of a long-recognized fact, that the number 
of marriages during a given period has a connection 
with the price of food. 

The increase of population keeps pace with the in- 



262 


VARIATIONS OP POPULATION. 


crease of food ; and, indeed, such being the power of 
the generative force, it overpasses the means of sdb-, 
sistence, establishing a constant pressure upon them. 
Under these circumstances, it necessarily happens that 
a certain amount of destitution must occur. Individu- 
als have come into existence who must be starved. 

As illustrations of the variations that have occurred 
in the population of different countries, may be men- 
tioned the immense diminution of that of Italy in con- 
sequence of the wars of Justinian; the depopulation of 
North Africa in consequence of theological quarrels ; 
its restoration through the establishment of Moham- 
medanism ; the increase of that of all Europe through 
the feudal system, when estates became more valuable 
in proportion to the umnber of retainers they could su}v 
ply. The crusades caused a sensible diminution, not 
only through the enonnous army losses, but also by rea- 
son of the withdrawal of so many able-bodied men from 
marriage-life. Similar variations have occurred on the 
American Continent. The population of Mexico w-as 
veiy quickly diminished by two million through the 
rapacity and atrocious cruelty of the Spaniards, who 
drove the civilized Indians to despair. The same hap- 
pened in Peru. 

The population of England at the Norman conquest 
was about two million. In five hundred years it had 
scarcely doubled. It may be supposed that this sta- 
tionary condition was to some e.xtent induced by the pa- 
pal policy oJ the enforcement of celibacy in the clergj’. 
The “legal ^nerative force” was doubtless affected by 
that policy, the “ actual generative force ” was not. For 
thosd who have made this subject their study have long 
ago been satisfied that public celibacy is private wick- 
edness. This mainly determined the laity, as well as 



VARIATIONS OF POPULATION. 


263 


the government in England, to suppress tlie monas- 
leries. It was openly asserted that there were one hun- 
dred thousand women in England made dissolute by 
the clergy. 

In myliistory of the ‘^American Civil War,” I have 
presented some reflections on this point, which I wdll 
take the liberty of quoting here : “ "V^at, then, does tliis 
stationary condition of the p^opulation mean ? * It means, 
food obtained with hardship, insufficient clothing, per- 
sonal uncleanness, cabins that could not keep out the 
weather, the destructive effects of cold and heat, miasm, 
want of sanitary provisions, absence of physicians, use- 
lessness of shrine-cure, the deceptiveness of miracles, in 
which society was putting its trust ; or, to sum up a long 
catalogue of sorrows, wants, and sufferings, in one term 
—it means a high death-rate. 

“ But more ; it means dclicient births. And what 
docs that point out? !MaiTiagc postponed, licentious 
life, private wickedness, demoralized society. 

“To an American, who lives in a country that was 
yesterday an interminable and impenetrable desert, but 
which to-day is filling with a population doubling itself 
every twenty-five years at the prescribed rate, this awful 
waste of actual and contingent life cannot but bo a most 
surprisihg fact. His curiosity will lead him to inquire 
what kind of system that could have been which was 
pretending to guide and develop society, but which must 
be held responsible for this prodigious destrpetion, ex- 
celling, in its insidious result, war, pestilence, and fam- 
ine combined ; insidious, for men were actually believing, 
that it secured their highest temporal interests. IIpw 
different now ! In England, the same ^ographical sur- 
face is sustaining ten times the population of that day, 
and sending forth its emigrating swarms. Let him, who 



264 


CONDITION OF EDKOPB. 


looks back witb veneration on the past, settle in bis ovii 
mind what such a system could have been worth.” : , 

These variations in the population of Europe have 
been attended with changes in distribution. The cen- 
tre of population has passed northward since the esta|^ 
lishment of Christianity in the Eoman Empire. It has 
since passed westward, in consequence of the develop- 
ment of nfli&nufacturing industry. 

We may now examine somewhat more minutely the 
character of the resistances which thus, for a thousand 
years, kept the population of Europe stationary. The 
surface of the Continent was for the most part covered 
with pathless forests ; here and there it was dotted with 
monasteries and towns. In the lowlands and along 
the river-courses were fens, sometimes hundreds of 
miles in extent, exhaling their pestiferous miasms, and 
spreading agues far and wide. In Paris and London, 
the houses were of wood daubed with clay, and thatched 
with straw or reeds. They had no windows, and, until 
tlie invention of the saw-mill, very few had wooden 
floors. The luxury of a carpet was unknown ; some 
straw, scattered in the room, supplied its place. There 
were no chimneys ; the smoko of the ill-fed, cheerless 
fire escaped through a hole in the roof. In such habi- 
tations there was scarcely any protection from the 
weather. No attempt was made at drainage, but the 
putrefying garbage and rubbish were simply thrown 
out of the* door. Men, women, and children, slept in 
the same a}>artment ; not unfrequently, domestic ani 
mals were their companions ; in such a confusion of the 
fanlily, it was impossible that modesty or morality could 
be maintained. The bed was usually a bag of straw, a 
wooden log served as a pillow. Personal cleanliness 



EUBOPE AT THE REFOBMATIOK. 


265 


was utterly unknown; great officers of state, even 
di^itaries so high as the Afchbishop of Canterbury, 
Bwanned with vermin ; such, it is related, was the con- 
dition of Thomas 4 Becket, the antagonist of an Eng- 
lish kingt To conceal personal impurity, perfumes were 
necessarily and profusely used. The citizen clothed 
himself in leather, a garment which, with its ever-accu- 
mulating impurity, might last for many ‘years. He 
was considered to be in circumstances of case, if ho 
could procure fresh meat once a week for his dinner. 
The streets had no sewers; they were without pave- 
ment or lamps. After nightfall, the chamber-shutters 
were thrown open, and slops unceremoniously emptied 
down, to the discomfiture of the w’ayfarer tracking his 
path through the narrow streets, with his dismal lantern 
in his hand. 

.^neas Sylvius, who afterward became Pope Pius 
II., and was therefore a very competent and impartial 
writer, has left us a graphic account of a journey ho 
made to the British Islands, about 1430. He describes 
the houses of the peasantry as constructed of stones put 
together without mortar ; the roofs were of turf, a stif- 
fened bull’s-hide served for a door. The food consisted 
of coarse vegetable products, such as peas, and even 
the bark of trees. In some places they were unac 
quainted with bread. 

Cabins of reeds plastered with mud, houses of wat- 
tled stakes, chimneyless peat-fires from which there was 
scarcely an escape for the smoke, dens of jfdiysical and 
moral pollution swarming with vermin, w^ps of straw 
twisted round the limbs to keep off the cold, the ague- 
stricken peasant with no help except shrinc-curo ! Tlow 
was it possible that the population could increase i 

Shall we, then, wonder that, in the famine of 1030, 



266 


DUAL GOVERNMENT IK EUROPE. 


human fledi was cooked and sold ; or that, in that of 1258 
fifteen thousand persons ^ed of hunger in Lond<mi 
Shall we wonder that, in some of the invasions of the 
plague, the deaths were so frightfully numerous that 
the living could hardly bury the dead ? By* that of 
1348, which came from the East along the lines o/ 
commercial travel, and spread all over Europe, one- 
third of the ‘population of France was destroyed. 

Such was the condition of the peasantry, and of the 
common inhabitants of cities. Not much better was 
that of the nobles. William of Malmesbury, speaking 
of the degraded manners of the Anglo-Saxons, says: 
“ (Their nobles, devoted to gluttony and voluptuousness, 
never visited the church, but the matins and the mass 
were read over to them by a hurrying priest in their 
bedchambers, before they rose, themselves not listening. 
The common people were a prey to the more powerful ; 
their property was seized, their, bodies dragged away to 
distant countries ; their maidens were either thro^vn into 
a brothel, or sold for slaves. Drinking, day and night, 
was the general pursuit ; vices, the companions of ine- 
briety, followed, effeminating the manly mind.” The 
baronial castles were dens of robbers. The Saxon chroni- 
cler records how men and women were caught and drag- 
ged into those strongholds, hung up by their thumbs or 
feet, fire applied to them, knotted strings twisted round 
their heads, and many other torments inflicted to extort 
ransom.^ 

All over* Europe, the great and profitable political 
offices were filled by ecclesiastics. In every country 
there was a dual government : 1. That of a local kind, 
represented by a temporal sovereign ; 2. That of a for- 
eign kind, acknowledging the authority of tlie pope. 
This Homan influence was, in the natiue of things, su- 



DUAL GOVERNMENT IN EUROPE. 


267 


perior to the local ; it expressed the sovereign will of 
one* man over all the nations of the continent conjointly, 
and gathered overwhelming power from its compact- 
ness and unity. The local influence was necessarily of 
a feeble Mature, since it was commonly weakened by 
the rivalries of conterminous states, and the dissensions 
dexterously provoked by its competitor. On not a 
single occasion could the various European btates form 
a coalition against tlieir common antagonist. When- 
ever a question arose, they were skillfully taken in de- 
tail, and commonly mastered. Tlie ostensible object of 
papal intrusion was to securc for the different peoples 
moral well-being; the real object was to obtain large 
revenues, and give support to vast bodies of ecclesias- 
tics. The revenues thus abstracted were not 'infre- 
quently many times greater than those passing into the 
treasury of the local power. Thus, on the occasion of 
Innocent IV . demanding provision to be made for three 
hundred additional Italian clergy by the Church of 
Kngland, and that one of his nephews — a mere boy — 
should liave a stall in Lincoln Cathedral, it was found 
that the sum already annually abstracted by foreign 
ecclesiastics from Engliind was thrice that M’hich went 
into the coffere of the king. 

While thus the higher clergy secured every politicid 
appointment worth having, and abbots vied with counts 
in the herds of slaves they possessed — some, it is said, 
owned not fewer than twenty thousand — begging friars 
pervaded society in all directions^ picking a share of 
what still remained to the poor. There was^a vast body 
of non-prodneers, living in idleness and owning a foreign 
allegiance, who were subsisting on the fruits of tho’toil 
of the laborers. It could not be otherwise than that 
Small farms should bo unceasingly merged into the 



26S 


SOCIAL CONDITION OP EUBOPB. 


larger estates; that the poor should steadily become 
poorer ; that society, far from improving, should exhibit 
a continually increasing demoralization. Outside the 
monastic institutions no attempt at intellectual advance 
ment was made ; indeed, so far as the laity were con 
cemed, the influence of the Church was directed to a/ 
opposite result, for the maxim universally received wa^ 
that ‘^gncfi^nce is the mother of devotion.” 

The settled practice of republican and imperia 
Rome was to have swift communication with all he 
outlying provinces, by means of substantial bridges an(. 
roads. One of the prime duties of the legions was tc 
construct them and keep them in repair. By this, lici 
military authority was assured. But the dominion of 
papal Rome, depending upon a different principle, had 
no exigencies of that kind, and this duty accordingly 
was left for the local powers to neglect. And so, in all 
directions, the roads were almost impassable for a large 
part of the year. A common means of transportation 
was in clumsy carts drawn by oxen, going at the most 
but three or four miles an hour. Where boat-convey- 
ance along rivers could not be had, pack-horses an<l 
mules were resorted to for the ti-ansportation of mer- 
chandise, an adequate means for the slender commerce 
of the times. When largo bodies of men had* to be 
moved, the difficulties became almost insuperable. Of 
this, perhaps, one of the best illustrations may be found 
in the story of the march of the first Crusaders. These 
restraints ilpon intercomnumication tended powerfully 
to promote rho general* benighted condition. Journeys 
by individuals could not be undertaken without much 
risk* for there was scarcely a moor or a forest that liad 
not its highwaymen. 

An illiterate condition everywhere prevailing, gave 



SOCIAL CONDITION OF EUROPE. 


269 


op^rtunity for the development of superstition. Europe 
was fuU of disgraceful miracles. On all the roads pil- 
grims were wendirig their way to the shrines of saints, 
renowned for the cures they had wrought. It had always 
ibeen the policy of the Church to discourage the physi- 
cian and his art ; he interfered too much with the gifts 
and profits of the shrines. Time has brought tliis once 
lucrative imposture to its proper value, llow many 
shrines are there now in successful operation in Europe ? 

For patients too sick to move or he moved, there 
were no remedies except those of a ghostly kind — the 
Pater-noster or the Ave. For the prevention of dis- 
eases, prayers were put up in the churches, but no sani- 
tary measures were resorted to. From cities reeking 
with putrefying filth it was thought that the plague 
might be stayed by the prayera of the priests, by tliem 
rain and dry weather might be secured, and deliverance 
obtained from the baleful influences of eclipses and 
comets. But when Halley’s comet caitie, in 1456, so 
tremendous was its apparition that it was necessary for 
the pope hirhself to interfere. He exorcised and ex- 
pelled it from the skies. It slunk away into the abysses 
of space, terror-stricken by the maledictions of Calixtus 
HI., and did not venture back for seventy-five years! 

T^e physical value of shrine-cures and ghostly remc* 
dies is measured by the death-rate. In those days it 
was, probably, about one in twenty-three, under the 
present more material practice it is about one in forty. 

The moral condition of Europe was^ignally illus- 
trated when syphilis was introduced from the W|?st 
Indies by the companions of Columbus. It spread with 
wonderful rapidity ; all ranks of persons, from the Holy 
Father Leo X. to the beggar by the wayside, contract- 
ing the shameful disease. Many excused their misfor- 



270 


SOCIAL CONDITION OP EF80PE. 


tune by declaring that it was an epidemic proceeding 
from a certain malignity In the constitution of the kir* 
but in truth its spread was due to a certain infirmity in 
the constitution of man — an infirmity which had not 
been removed by the spiritual guidance under 'which h« 
had been living. 

To the medical eflGicacy of shrines must be added 
that of social relics. These were sometimes of the 
most extraordiuary kind. There were several abbeys 
that possessed oxu* Savior’s crown of thorns. Eleven had 
the lance that had pierced his side. If any person was 
adventurous enough to suggest that these could not all 
be authentic, he would have been denounced as an 
atheist. During the holy wars the Templar-Knights had 
driven a profitable commerce by bringing from Jerusa- 
lem to the Crusading armies bottles of the milk of the 
Blessed Virgin, which they sold for enonnous sums ; 
these bottles were preserved with pious care in many of 
the great religious establishments. But perhaps none 
of these impostures surpassed in audacity that offered by 
a monastery in Jerusalem, which presented to the be- 
holder one of the fingers of the Holy Ghost 1 Modern 
society has silently rendered its verdict on these scan- 
dalous objects. Though they once nourished the piety 
of thousands of earnest people, they are now considered 
too vile to have a place in any public museum. 

How shall we account for the great failure we thus 
detect in the guardianship of the Church over Europe ? 
This is not the result th^t must have occurred had there 
been in Bon^e an unremitting care for the spiritual and 
material prosperity of the continent, had the universal 
pastor, the successor of Peter, occupied himself with 
singleness of purpose for the holiness and happiness of 
his flock. 



TBANSFORMATION OF THE PAPACY. 


271 


^The explanation is not diflacult to find. It is con- 
^ tailed in a story of sin and sliame. I prefer, therefore, 
in the following paragraphs, to offer explanatory facts 
derived from Catholic authors, and, indeed, to present 
|hem as nearly as I can in the words of those writers. 

The story I am about to relate is a narrative of the 
transformation of a confederacy into an aUitolute mon 
archy. 

In the early times every church, without prejudice 
to its agreement with the Church universal in aU essen- 
tial points, managed its own affairs with perfect free- 
dom and independence, maintaining its own traditional 
usages and discipline, all questions not concerning the 
whole Church, or of primary importance, being settled 
on the spot. 

Until the beginning of the ninth century, there was 
no change in the constitution of the Eoman Church. 
But about 845 the Isidorian Decretals were fabricated 
in the west of Gaul — a forgery containing about one 
hundred pretended decrees of the early popes, together 
with certain spurious writings of other church digni- 
taries and acts of synods. This forgery produced an 
immense extension of the papal power, it displaced the 
old system of church government, divesting it of the 
republican attributes it had possessed, and transforming 
it into an absolute monarchy. It brought the bishops 
into subjection to Home, and made the pontiff the 
supreme judge of the clergy of the whifi'e Christian 
world. It prepared the way for the great attempt, sub- 
sequently made by Hildebrand, to convert the states of 
Europe into a theocratic priest-kingdom, with the j^ope 
at its head. 

Gregory VII., the author of this great attempt, saw 



272 CENTRALIZATION OP THE PAPACY. 

that his plans would be beet carried out througlv^the 
agency of synods. He, therefore, restricted the 
of holding them to the popes and their legates. To 
aid in the matter, a new system of church law was 
devised by Anselm of Lucca, partly from the old Isj- 
dorian forgeries, and partly from new inventions. To 
establish the supremacy of Rome, not only had a new 
civil and a *new canon law to be produced, a new history 
had also to be invented. This furnished needful in- 
stances of the deposition and excommunication of kings, 
and proved that they had always been subordinate to 
the popes. The decretal letters of the popes were put 
on a par with Scripture. At length it came to be re- 
ceived, throughout the West, that the popes had been, 
from the beginning of Christianity, legislators for the 
whole Church. As absolute sovereigns in later times 
cannot endure representative assemblies, so the papacy, 
when it wished to become absolute, found that the 
synods of particular national churches must be put an 
end to, and those only under the immediate control of 
the pontiff permitted. This, in itself, constituted a 
great revolution. 

Another fiction concocted in Rome in the eighth cen- 
tury led to important consequences. It feigned that 
the Emperor Constantine, in gratitude for his cure from 
leprosy, and baptism by Pope Sylvester, had bestowed 
Italy and the Western provinces on the pope, and that, 
in token of his subordination, he had served the pope 
as his grobm, and led his horse some distance. This 
forgery wa^ intended to work on the Frankish kings, 
to impress them with a correct idea of their inferiority, 
and to show that, in the territorial concessions they 
made to the Church, they were not giving but only re- 
storing what rightfully belonged to it 



CENTRALIZATION OP THE PAPACY. 


273 


/ The most potent instrument of the new papal system 
vw Gratian’s Decretum, which was issued about the 
middle of the twelfth century. It w’as a mass of fabrica- 
tions. It made the whole Christian world, through the 
-papacy, the domain of the Italian clergy. It inculcated 
that it is lawful to constrain men .to goodness, to torture 
and execute heretics, and to confiscate their property; 
that to kill an excommunicated person is not murder ; 
that the pope, in his unlimited superiority to all law 
stands on an equality with the Son of God I 

As the new system of centralization developed, 
maxims, that in the olden times would have been held to 
be shocking, were boldly avowed — the whole Church 
is the property of the pope to do with as ho will ; what 
is simony in others is not simony in him ; he is above 
all law, and can be called to account by none; who- 
ever disobeys him must be put to death; every bap- 
tized man is his subject, and must for life remain so, 
whether he will or not. Up to the end of the twelfth 
century, the popes were the vicars of Peter ; after Inno- 
cent III. they were the vicars of Christ. 

But an absolute sovereign has need of revenues, and 
to this the popes were no exception. The institution 
of legates was brought in from Hildebrand’s time. 
Somefimes their duty was to visit churches, sometimes 
they were sent on special business, but always invested 
with unlimited powers to bring back money over the 
Alps. And since the pope could not only^ make laws, 
but could suspend their operation, a legislation was in- 
troduced in view to the purchase of dispensations. 
Monasteries were , exempted from episcopal jurisdic^tion 
on payment of a tribute to Home. The pope had now 
become “ the universal bishop ; ” he had a concurrent 
jurisdiction in all the dioceses, and could bring any 

T 



374 


OEOTBALIZATION OP THE PAPACY.- 


cases before bis own courts. His relation to tbe bisbVps 
was that of an absolute sovereign to his officials. A* 
bishop could resign only by his permission, and sees 
vacated by resignation lapsed to him. Appeals to him 
were encouraged in every way for the sake of tho 
dispensations; thousands of processes came before the 
Curia, bringing a rich harvest to Home. Often when 
there were disputing claimants to benefices, the pope 
would oust them all, and appoint a creature of his own. 
Often the candidates had to waste years in Home, and 
either died there, or carried back a vivid impression of 
the dominant corruption. Germany sufiered more than 
other countries from these appeals and processes, and 
hence of all countries was best prepared for the Eef- 
ormation. During the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
turies the popes made gigantic strides in the acquisition 
of power. Instead of recommending their favorites for 
benefices, now they issued mandates. Their Italian parti- 
sans must be rewarded ; nothing could be done to satisfy 
their clamors, but to provide for them in foreign coxm- 
tries. Shoals of contesting claimants died in Eome ; and, 
when death took place in that city, the Pope claimed 
the right of giving away the benefices. At length it 
was affirmed that he had the right of disposing of all 
church-offices without distinction, and that the oath of 
obedience of a bishop to him implied political as well 
as ecclesiastical subjection. In countries having a dual 
government, this increased the power of the spiritual 
element prdjf'igiously. • 

* Eights of every kind were remorselessly overthrown 
to (vomplete this centralization. In this the mendicant 
orders were most efficient aids. It was the pope and 
those orders on one side, the bishops and the paro- 
chial clergy on the other. The Eoman court had seized 



PECUNIAET NECESSITIES OF THE PAPAOT. 275 

tbJ rights of synods, metropolitans, bishops, national 
churches. Incessantly interfered with by the legates, 
the bishops lost all desire to discipline their dioceses * 
incessantly interfered with by the begging monks, the 
parish priest had become powerless in his own village ; 
his pastoral influence was utterly destroyed by the pa- 
pal indulgences and absolutions they sold. ,^he money 
was carried ofl to Borne. 

Pecuniary necessities urged many of the popes to 
resort to such petty expedients as to require from a 
prince, a bidiop, or a grand-master, who had a cause 
pending in the court, a present of a golden cup filled 
with ducats. Such necessities also gave origin to ju- 
bilees. Sixtus rV. established whole colleges, and sold 
the places at three or four himdred ducats. Innocent 
VIII. pawned the papal tiara. Of Leo X. it was said 
that he squandered the revenues of three popes, he 
wasted the savings of his predecessor, he spent his own 
income, he anticipated that of his successor, he created 
twenty-one himdred and fifty new offices and sold them ; 
they were considered to be a good investment, as they 
produced twelve per cent. The interest was extorted 
from Catholic countries. Xowhere in Europe could 
capital be so well invested as at Borne. Large sums 
were raised by the foreclosing of mort^ges, and not 
only by the sale but the resale of offices. Men wero 
promoted, for the purpose of selling their offices again. 

Though against the papal theory, which, denounced 
usurious practices, an immense papal banbjing system 
had sprung up, in connection with the Curia, and sumo* 
at usurious interest were advanced to prelates, place- 
hunters, and litigants. The papal bankers were privi- 
leged ; all others were under the ban. The Curia had 
discovered that it was for their interest to have ecclesi- 



276 


THE RAISING OP REVENUES. 


astics all over Europe in their debt. They could mdke 
them pliant, and excommunicate them for non-payment » 
of interest. In 1827 it was reckoned that half the 
Christian world was under excommunication : bishops 
were excommunicated because they could not meet the» 
extortions of legates ; and persons were excommunicated, 
under vario^ pretenses, to compel them to purchase ab- 
solution at an exorbitant price. The ecclesiastical reve- 
nues of all Europe were flowing into Rome, a sink of 
corruption, simony, usury, bribery, extortion. The 
popes, since 1066, when the great centralizing move- 
ment began, had no time to pay attention to the inter- 
nal affairs of their own special flock in the city of Rome. 
There were thousands of foreign cases, each bringing in 
money. “ Whenever,” says the Bishop Alvaro Pelayo, 

“ I entered the apartments of the Roman court clergy, I 
found them occupied in counting up the gold -coin, 
which lay about the rooms in heaps.” Every opportu- 
nity of extending the jurisdiction of the Curia was wel- 
come. Exemptions were so managed that fresh grants 
were constantly necessary. Bishops were privileged 
against cathedral chapters, chapters against their 
bishops; bishops, convents, and individuals, against 
the extortions of legates. 

The two pillars on which the papal system ntfw rest- 
ed were the College of Cardinals and the Curia. The 
cardinals, in 1059, had become electors of the popes. 
Up to that time elections were made by the whole body 
of the Ron^n clergy, snd the concurrence of the m^s- 
trates and .citizens was necessary. But Hicolas II. re- 
stricted elections to the College of Cardinals by a two- 
thirds vote, and gave to the German emperor the right 
of confirmation. For almost two centuries there was a 
struggle for mastery between the cardinal oligarchy and 



THE rOPB AND THE CABDINALS. 


277 


papal absolutism. The cardinals were willing enough 
tllat the pope should be absolute in his foreign rule, but 
they never failed to attempt, before giving him their 
votes, to bind him to accord to them a recognized share 
j,in the government. After his election, and before his 
consecration, he swore to observe certain capitulations, 
such as a participation of revenues between himself and 
the cardinals ; an obligation that he would €iot remove 
thorn, but would permit them to assemble twice a year 
to discuss whether he had kept his oath. Repeatedly 
the popes broke their oath. On one side, the cardinals 
wanted a larger share in the church government and 
emoluments ; on the other, the popes refused to surren- 
der revenues or power. The cardinals wanted to be 
conspicuous in pomp and extravagance, and for this vast 
sums were requisite. In one instance, not fewer than 
five hundred benefices were held by one of them ; their 
friends and retainers must be supplied, their families 
enriched. It was afldrmed that the whole revenues of 
France were insufficient to meet their expenditures. In 
their rivalries it sometimes happened that no pope was 
elected for several years. It seemed as if they wanted 
to show how easily the Church could get on without the 
Vicar of Christ. 

Toward the close of the eleventh century the Ro- 
man Church became the Roman court. In place of the 
Christian sheep gently following their shepherd in the 
holy precincts of the city, there had arisen a chancery of 
writers, notaries, tax-gatherers, where transitions about 
privileges, dispensations, exemptions, wefe carried on ; 
and suitors went with petitions from door to dodr. 
Rome was a rallying-point for place-hunters of every 
nation. In presence of the enormous mass of business- 
processes, graces, indulgences, absolutions, commands, 



278 


PECUNIARY DEMORALIZATION. 


and decisions, addressed to all paiis of Europe and Asia, 
tlie functions of the local church sank into insigmfi.^ 
cance. Several hundred persons, whose l^ome was 
the Curia, were required. Their aim was to rise in it 
by enlarging the profits of the papal treasury. The^ 
whole Christian world had become tributary to it. 
Here eveiy vestige of religion had disappeared ; its 
members were busy with politics, litigations, and pro- 
cesses ; not a word could be heard about spiritual con- 
cerns. Every stroke of the pen had its price. Bene- 
fices, dispensations, licenses, absolutions, indulgences, 
privileges, were bought and sold like merchandise. The 
suitor had to bribe every one, from the doorkeeper to 
the pope, or his case was lost. Poor men could neither 
attain preferment, nor hope for it ; and the result was, 
that every cleric felt he had a right to follow the exam- 
ple he had seen at Home, and that he might make profits 
out of his spiritual ministries and sacraments, having 
bought the right to do so at Rome, and having no other 
way to pay off his debt. The transference of power 
from Italians to Frenclimen, through the removal of 
the Curia to Avignon, produced no cliange — only the 
Italians felt that the enrichment of Italian families had 
slipped out of their grasp. They had learned to con- 
sider the papacy as their appanage, and that they, under 
the Christian dispensation, were God’s chosen people, 
as the Jews had been under the Mosaic. 

At the end of the thirteenth centmy a new kingdom 
was discovered, capable of yielding immense revenues. 
This was Pulsatory. It* was shown that the pope could 
empty it by Tiis indulgences. In this there was no need 
of hypocrisy. Things were done openly. The original 
germ of the apostolic primacy had now expanded into 
a colossal monarchy. 



NEED OF A GENERAL COUNCIL. 


279 


•Tlie Inquisition had made the papal system irre- 
sistible. All opposition must be punished with death 
by fire. mere thought, without having betrayed it- 
self by outward sign, was considered as guilt. As time 
went on, this practice of the Inquisition became more 
and more atrocious. Torture was resorted to on mere 
suspicion. The accused was not allowed to know tho 
name of his accuser. He was not pennirtted to have 
any legal adviser. There was no appeal. The Inquisi- 
tion was ordered not to lean to pity. No recantation 
was of avail. The innocent family of the accused was 
deprived of its property by confiscation ; half went to 
the papal treasury, half to the inquisitors. life only, 
said Innocent III., was to be left to the sons of misbe- 
lievers, and that merely as an act of mercy. The con- 
sequence was, that popes, such as Nicolas III., enriched 
their families through plunder acquired by this tribunal. 
Inquisitors did the same habitually. 

The struggle between the French and Italians for 
the possession of the papacy inevitably led to the schism 
of the fourteenth century. For more than forty years 
two rival popes were now anathematizing each other, 
two rival Curias were squeezing the nations for money. 
Eventually, there were three obediences, and triple 
revenues to be extorted. Nobody, now, could guaranteo 
the validity of the sacraments, for nobody could be sure 
which was the true pope. Men were thus compelled to 
think for themselves. They could not find who was the 
legitimate thinker for them. They begai/ to see that 
the Church must rid herself of tho curiSflistic chains, 
and resort to a General Council. That attempt was 
again and again made, the intention being to raisS tho 
Council into a Parliament of Christendom, and make 
the pope its chief executive officer. But the vast inter- 



280 HOrELErSNESS OF THE CONDITIOIT. 

ests that had grown out of the corruption of ages col^d 
not 80 easily be overcome ; the Curia again recovered its • 
ascendency, and ecclesiastical trading was resumed. The 
Germans, who had never been permitted to share in the 
Curia, took the leading part in these attempts at reform.* 
As things went on frojtn bad to worse, even they at last 
found out that all hope of reforming the Church by 
means of councils was delusive. Erasmus exclaimed, 

“ If Christ does not deliver his people from this multi- 
form ecclesiastical tyranny, the tyranny of the Turk will 
become less intolerable.” Cardinals’ hats were now 
sold, and under Leo X. ecclesiastical and religious offices 
were actually put up to auction. The maxim of life had 
become, interest first, honor afterward. Among the 
officials, there was not one who could be honest in the 
dark, and virtuous without a Avitness. The violet-colored 
velvet cloaks and white ermine capes of the cardinals 
were truly a cover for wickedness. 

The unity of the Church, and therefore its power, re- 
quired the use of Latin as a sacred language. Through 
this, Rome had stood in an attitude strictly European, 
and was enabled to maintain a general international re- 
lation, It gave her far more power than her asserted 
celestial authority, and, much as she claims to have done, 
she is open to condemnation that, with such a sign'kl ad- 
vantage in her hands, never again to be enjoyed by any 
successor, she did not accomplish much more. Had not 
the sovereign pontifis been so completely occupied with 
inaintainingUheir emolupaents and temporalities in Italy, 
t^ey might ifave made the whole continent advance like 
one man. Their officials could pass without difficulty 
into every nation, and communicate without embarrass- 
ment with each other, from Ireland to Bohemia, from 
Italy to Sootlaiid. The possession of a common tongue 



LATIN AS A SACRED LANGUAGE. 


281 


gave them the administration of international afiairs 
lyrith intelligent allies everywhere, speaking the same 
language.* 

Not without cause was the hatred manifested by 
v]Bome to* the restoration of Greek and introduction of 
Hebrew, and the alarm with which she perceived the 
modern languages forming out of the vulgar dialects. 
Not without reason did the Faculty of Theoldgy in Paris 
reecho the sentiment that was prevalent in the time of 
Ximenes, “ What will become of religion if the study of 
Greek and Hebrew be permitted ? ” The prevalence of 
Latin was the condition of her power ; its deterioration, 
the measure of her decay ; its disuse, the signal of her 
limitation to a little principality in Italy. In fact, the 
development of European languages was the instrument 
of her overthrow. They formed an effectual communica- 
tion between the mendicant friars and the illiterate pop- 
ulace, and there was not one of them that did not dis- 
play in its earliest productions a sovereign contempt for 
her. 

The rise of the many-tongued European literature 
was therefore coincident with the decline of papal Chris- 
tianity ; European literature was impossible under Cath- 
olic rule. A grand, a solemn, an imposing religious 
unity enforced the literary unity which is implied in the 
use of a single tongue. 

While thus the possession of a universal language 
so signally secured her power, the real secret of much of 
the influence of the Chusch lay in the cor/trol she had 
so skillfully obtained over domestic life. Her influence 
diminished as that declined. Coincident mth this was 
her displacement in the guidance of international “rela- 
tions by diplomacy. 

In the old times of Homan domination the encamp- 



282 CATHOLICITY AND CIVILIZATION. 

mcnts of ihe legions in the provinces had always proved 
to he foci of civilization. The industry and order ^ex* 
hibited in them presented an example not }ost on the 
surrounding barbarians of Britain, Gaul, and Germany. 
And, though it was no part of their duty to occupy 
themselves actively in the betterment of the conquered 
tribes, but rather to keep them in a depressed condition, 
that aidedsin maintaining subjection, a steady improve- 
ment both in the individual and social condition took 
place. 

Under the, ecclesiastical domination of Eome similar 
effects occurred. In the open country the monastery 
replaced the legionary encampment ; in the village or 
town, the church was a centre of light. A powerful 
effect was produced by the elegant luxury of the former, 
and by the sacred and solemn monitions of the latter. 

In extolling the papal system for what it did in the 
organization of the family, the definition of civil policy, 
the construction of the states of Europe, om- praise 
must be limited by the recollection that the chief object 
of ecclesiastical policy was the aggrandizement of the 
Churcli, not the promotion of civilization. The benefit 
obtained by the laity, was not through any special inten- 
tion, but incidental or collateral. 

There was no far-reaching, no persistent plan to 
ameliorate the physical condition of tlae nations. Noth- 
ing was done to favor their intellectual development; 
indeed, on the contrary, it was the settled policy to keep 
them not merely illiterate, but ignorant. Century after 
century pas^d away, and left the peasantiy but little 
better than the cattle in the fields. Intercommunica- 
tion'and locomotion, which tend so powerfully to expand 
the ideas, received no encouragement ; the majority of 
men died without ever having ventured out of the 



CATHOLICITY AND CIVILIZATION. 


283 


neighborhood in which they were bom. For them 
^there was no hope of personal improvement, none of 
the bettering of their lot ; there were no comprehensivo 
schemes for the avoidance of individual want, none for 
{he resistance of famines. Pestilences were permitted to 
stalk forth unchecked, or at best opposed only by mum- 
meries. Bad food, wretched clothing, inadequate shel- 
ter, were suffered to produce their result, and bt the end 
of a thousand years the population of Europe had not 
doubled. 

If policy may be held accountable as much for the 
births it prevents as for the deaths it occasions, what a 
great responsibility there is here 1 

In this investigation of the influence of Catholicism, 
we must carefully keep separate what it did for the 
people and what it did for itself. When we think of 
the stately monastery, an embodiment of luxury, with 
its closely-mown lawns, its gardens and bowers, its foun- 
tains and many murmuring streams, we must connect it 
not with the ague-stricken peasant dying without help 
in the fens, but with the abbot, his ambling palfrey, 
his hawk and hounds, his well-stocked cellar and larder. 
He is part of a system that has its centre of authority 
in Italy. To that his allegiance is due. For its behoof 
are all his acts. When we survey, as still we may, the 
magniflcent churches and cathedrals of those times, 
miracles of architectural skill — the only real miracles 
of Catholicism — ^when in imagination we restore the 
transcendently imposing, the noble services of ^hich they 
were once the scene, the dim, religious light streaming 
in through the many-colored windows, the sounds of 
voices not inferior in their melody to those of heaven, 
the priests in their sacred vestments, and above all the 
prostrate worshipers listening to litanies and prayers in 



284 


CATHOLICITY AND CIVILIZATION. 


a foreign and unknown tongue, ^all we not ask' our- 
selves, Was all this for the sake of those worshipers, o» 
for the glory of the great, the overshadowing autiiority 
at Borne 1 

But perhaps some one may say. Are there not limito 
to human exertion-rthings which no political system, 
no human power, no matter how excellent its intention, 
can accomplish 1 Men cannot he raised from barbarism, 
a continent cannot be civilized, in a day ! 

The Catholic power is not, however, to be tried by 
any such standard. It scornfully rejected and still re- 
jects a human origin. It claims to be accredited super- 
naturally. The sovereign pontiff is the Vicar of God 
upon earth. Infallible in judgment, it is given to him 
to accomplish aU things by miracle if need be. He had 
exercised an autocratic tyranny over the intellect of 
Europe for more than a thousand years ; and, though on 
some occasions he had encountered the resistances of 
disobedient princes, these, in the aggregate, were of so 
little moment, that the physical, the political power of 
the continent may be affirmed to have been at his dis- 
posal. 

, Such facts as have been presented in this chapter 
were, doubtless, well weighed by the Protestant Keform- 
ers of the sixteenth century, and brought them* to the 
conclusion that Catholicism had altogether failed in its 
mission ; that it had become a vast system of delusion and 
imposture, and that a restoration of true Christianity 
could onl^bo accomplished by returning to the faitli 
.and practices of the piimitive times. This was no deci- 
sion suddenly arrived at ; it had long been the opinion of 
many religious and learned men. The pious Fratricelli 
in the middle ages liad loudly expressed their belief that 
the fatal gift of a Boman emperor had been the doom 



CATHOLICITY AND CIVILIZATION. 


286 


of .true religion. It wanted nothing more than the 
i^'oice of Luther to bring men throughout the north of 
Europe to the determination that the worship of the 
Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, the working of 
miracles, supernatural cures of the sick, the purchase of 
indulgences for the perpetration .of sin, and all other 
evil practices, lucrative to their abettors, which had been 
fastened on Christianity, but which were no’ part of it, 
should come to an end. Catholicism, as a system for 
promoting the well-being of man, had plainly failed in 
justifying its alleged origin ; its performance had not 
corresponded to its great pretensions ; and, after an op- 
portunity of more than a thousand years’ duration, it 
had left the masses of men submitted to its influences, 
both as regards physical well-being and intellectual cult- 
ure, in a condition far lower than what it ought to have 
been. 



CHAPTER XI. 

SCIE170B m BELATIOK TO MODERN dVILIZATION. 


lUiistnUion of Qie general influences of Sdenee from the history of America, 
The Introduction of Science into Europe.— from Moorish Spain 
to Upper Italy ^ and was favored hy the absence of the popes at Avignon, 
— The effects of printing^ of maritime adventure^ and of the Refor^ 
motion, — EsiahlishmenJt of the Italian sdenlijie societies. 

The Intellectual Influence of Science.— changed the mode and the 
direction of thought in Europe, — The transactions of the Royal So- 
ciety of London^ and other scientific societies^ furnish an illustration 
of this. 

The Economical Influence of Science is illustrated hy the numerous me- 
chanical and physical inventions^ made since the fourteenth century , — 
Thdr influence on health and domestic life^ on the arts of peace and 
of war, , 

Answer to the question^ What has Science done for humanity f 

Eubope, at the epoch of the Reformation, furnishes 
ns with the result of the influences of Roman Christian- 
ity in the promotion of civilization. America, examined 
in like manner at the present time, furnishes us with an 
illustration of the influences of science. 

In the bourse of the seventeenth century a sparse 
Jluropean population had settled along the western At- 
lantic coast. Attracted by the cod-fishery of Newfound- 
lan(i, the French had a little colony north of the St. 
Lawrence ; the English, Dutch, and Swedes, occupied 
the shore of New England and the Middle States; some 



SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION. 


287 

Huguenots were living in the Carolinas. Rumors of a 
spring that could confer perpetual youth — a fountain of 
life — ^had brought a few Spaniards into Florida. Be- 
hind the fringe of villages which these adventurers had 
Ouilt, lay a vast and unknown country, inhabited by 
wandering Indians, whose numbers from the Gulf of 
Mexico to the St. Lawrence did not exceed one htmdred 
and eighty thousand. From them the European stran- 
.gers had learned that in those solitary regions there 
were fresh-water seas, and a great river which they 
called the Mississippi. Some said that it flowed through 
Virginia into the Atlantic, some that it passed through 
Florida, some that it emptied into the Paciflc, and some 
that it reached the Gulf of Mexico. Farted from their 
native countries by the stormy Atlantic, to cross which 
implied a voyage of many months, these refugees seemed 
lost to the world. 

But before the close of the nineteenth century the 
descendants of this feeble people had become one of 
the gi'eat powers of the earth. They had established, a 
republic whose sway extended from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. With an army of more than a million men, not 
on paper, but actually in the field, they had overthrown 
a domestic assailant. They had maintained at sea a 
war-fleet of nearly seven hundred ships, carrying five 
thousand guns, some of them the heaviest in the world. 
The tonnage of this navy amounted to half a million. 
In the defense of their national life they had expended 
in less than five years more than»four thous^d million 
dollars. Their census, periodically taken, showed that 
the population was doubling itself every twenty-^ve 
years ; it justified the expectation that at the close of 
that century it would number nearly one hundred mill* 
ion souls. 



288 


KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. 


A silent continent had been changed into a scene oi 
industry ; it was full of the din of machinery and th« 
restless moving of men. Where there had been an un- 
broken forest, there were hundreds of cities and towns. 
To commerce were furnished in profusion some of the 
most important staples, as cotton, tobacco, breadstufEs. 
The mines yielded incredible quantities of gold, iron, 
coal. Countless churches, colleges, and public schools, 
testified that a moral influence vivified this material ac- 
tivity. Locomotion was effectually provided for. The 
railways exceeded in aggregate length those of all Eu- 
rope combined. In 1873 the aggregate length of the 
European railways was sixty-three thousand three hun- 
dred and sixty miles, that of the American was seventy 
thousand six hundred and fifty miles. One of them, 
built across the continent, connected the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans. 

But not alone are these material results worthy of 
notice. Others of a moral and social kind force them- 
selves on our attention. Four million negro slaves 
had been set free. Legislation, if it inclined to the 
advantage of any class, inclined to that of the poor. 
Its -intention was to raise them from poverty, and bet- 
ter their lot. A career was open to talent, and that 
without any restraint. Every thing was possible to in- 
telligence and industry. Many of the most important 
public offices were filled by men who had risen from 
the humblest walks of life. If there was not social 
equality, ai there never can be in rich and prosperous 
pommunities, there was civil equality, rigorously main- 
tained. . 

It may perhaps be said that much of this material 
prosperity arose from special conditions, such as had 
never occurred in the case of any people before. There 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM AMERICAN IIISTORT Ogg 


was a vast, an open theatre of action, a whole continent 
ready for any who chose to take possession of it. Noth- 
ing more than courage and industiy was needed to over- 
come Nature, and to seize the abounding advantages 
o^he offered. 

But must not men be animated by a great principle 
who successfully transform the primeval solitudes into 
an abode of civilization, who are not disrnayed^by gloomy 
forests, or rivers, mountains, or frightful deserts, who 
push their conquering way in the course of a century 
across a continent, and hold it in subjection ? Let us 
contrast with this the results of the invasion of Mexico 
and Peru by the Spaniards, who in those countries over- 
threw a wonderful civilization, in many respects superior 
to their own — a civilization that had been accomplished 
without iron and gunpowder — a, civilization resting on 
an agriculture that had neither horse, nor ox, nor plough. 
The Spaniards had a clear base to start from, and no 
obstruction whatever in their advance. They ruined all 
that the aboriginal children of America had accom- 
plished. Millions of those unfortunates were destroyed 
by their cruelty. Nations that for many centuries had 
been living in contentment and prosperity, under in- 
stitutions shown by their history to be suitable to them, 
were plunged into anarchy ; the people fell into a bane- 
ful superstition, and a greater part of their landed and 
other property found its way into the possession of the 
Roman Church. 

I have selected the foregoing illu8tra4;ion, drawn 
from American history, in preference to ipany others 
that might have been taken from European, because 
it furnishes an instance of the operation of the acting 
principle least interfered with by extraneous conditions. 
^ European political progress is less simple than American. 

u 



290 quarrel between France and the papacy. 


Before considering its manner of action, and ite re- 
sults, I will briefly relate how the scientific principle 
found an introduction into Europe. 

INTRODUCTION OF SCIENCE INTO EUROPfe. 

Not only had the -Crusades, for many years, brought 
vast sums^tp Rome, extorted from the fears or the piety 
of every Christian nation ; they had also increased the 
papal power to a most dangerous extent. In the dual 
governments everywhere prevailing in Europe, the spir- 
itual had obtained the mastery ; the temporal was little 
better than its servant. 

From all quarters, and under all kinds of pretenses, 
streams of money were steadily flowing into Italy. The 
temporal princes found that there were left for them in- 
adequate and impoverished revenues. Philip the Fair, 
King of France (a. d, 1300), not only determined to check 
this drain from his dominions, by prohibiting the export 
of gold and silver without his license ; he also resolved 
tliat the clergy and the ecclesiastical estates should pay 
their share of taxes to him. This brought on a mortal 
contest with the papacy. The king was excommuni 
cated, and, in retaliation, he accused the pope, Boniface 
VIII., of atheism ; demanding that he should be tried 
by a general council. He sent some trusty persons into 
Italy, who seized Boniface in his palace at Anagni, and 
treated him with so much severity, that in a few days 
lie died. The succeeding pontiff, Benedict XL, was 
poisoned. 

f The French king was determined that the papacy 
should be purified and reformed ; that it should no longer 
be the appanage of a few Italian families, who were 
dexterously transmuting the credulity of Europe into 
coin — ^that French influence should prevail in it. He 



MOORISH SCIENCE INTRODUCED THROUGH FRANCE. 291 

therefore came to an imderstanding with the cardinals ; 
a French archbishop was elevated to the pontificate; 
he took the name of Clement V. The papal court was 
removed to Avignon, in France, and Eome was aban- 
doned as ‘the metropolis of Christianity. 

Seventy years elapsed before the papacy was restored 
to the Eternal City (a. d. 1376). The diminution of its 
influence in the peninsula, that had thus occiirred, gave 
opportunity for the memorable intellectual movement 
which soon manifested itself in the great commercial 
cities of Upper Italy. Contemporaneously, also, there 
were other propitious events. The result of the Cru- 
sades had shaken the faith of all Christendom. In an 
age when the test of the ordeal of battle was universally 
accepted, those wars had ended in leaving the Holy 
Land in the hands of the Saracens ; the many thousand 
Christian warriors who had returned from them did not 
hesitate to declare that they had found their antagonists 
not such as had been pictured by the Church, but val- 
iant, courteous, just. Through the gay cities of the 
south of France a love of romantic literature had been 
spreading ; the wandering troubadours had been singing 
their songs — songs far from being restricted to ladye- 
love and feats of war ; often their burden was the awful 
atrocities that had been pcipetrated by papal authority — 
the religious massacres of Languedoc ; often their bur- 
den was the illicit amours of the clergy. From Moor- 
ish Spain the gentle and gallant idea of chivalry had 
been brought, and with it tlie noj)!© sentimeAt of per- 
sonal honor,” destined in the course of time to give a^ 
code of its own to Europe. ^ 

The return of the papacy to Kome was far from 
restoring the influence of the popes over the Italian 
Peninsula. More than two generations had passed away 



’292 


EFFECT OF idB GREAT SCHISif. 


since their departure, and, had they come back evbn in 
their original strength, they could not have resisted \]i% 
intellectual progress that had been made during their 
absence. The papacy, however, came back not to rule, 
but to be divided against itself, to encounter ‘the Great 
Schism. Out of its dissensions emerged two rival popes ; 
eventually there were three, each pressing his claims 
upon the religious, each cursing his rival. A sentiment 
of indignation soon spread all over Europe, a determi- 
nation that the shameful scenes which were then enact- 
ing should be ended. How could the dogma of a 
Vicar of God upon earth, the dogma of an infallible 
pope, be sustained in presence of such scandals ? Herein 
lay the cause of that resolution of the ablest ecclesiastics 
of those times (which, alas for Europe ! could not be car- 
ried into effect), that a general council should be made 
the permanent religious parliament of the whole con- 
tinent, with the pope as its chief executive officer. Had 
that intention been accomplished, there would have been 
at this day no conflict between science and religion; 
the convulsion of the Eeformation would have been 
avoided ; there would have been no jarring Protestant 
sects. But the Councils of Constance and Basle failed 
to shake off the Italian yoke, failed to attain that noble 
result. 

Catholicism was thus weakening; as its leaden press- 
ure lifted, the intellect of man expanded. The Sara- 
cens had invented the method of making paper from 
linen ragrfand from cptton. The Venetians had brought 
, from China to Europe the art of printing. The former 
of these inventions was essential to the latter. Hence- 
forth, without the possibility of a check, there was in- 
tellectual intercommunication among all men. 

The invention of printing was a severe blow to 



INVENTION OP tHiwyiNG. 


293 


Catholicism, which had, previously, enjoyed the inap- 
oreciable advantage of a monopoly of intercommuni- 
cation. From its central seat, orders could he dissemi- 
nated through all the ecclesiastical ranks, and fulminated 
through i5ie pulpits. This monopoly and the amazing 
power it conferred were destroyed by the press. In 
modern times, the influence of the pulpit has become 
insignificant. The pulpit has been thorob^hly sup- 
planted by the newspaper. 

Yet, Catholicism did not yield its ancient advantage 
without a stnigglc. As soon as the inevitable tendency 
of the new art was detected, a restraint upon it, under 
the foim of a censorship, was attempted. It was made 
necessary to have a permit, in order to print a book. 
For this, it was needful that the work should have been 
read, examined, and approved by the clergy. There 
must be a certificate that it was a godly and orthodox 
book. A bull of excommunication was issued in 1501, 
by Alexander VI., against printers who should publish 
2 )emicious doctrines. In 1515 the Lateran Council 
ordered that no books should bo printed but such as 
had been inspected by the ecclesiastical censors, under 
pain of excommunication and fine ; the censors being 
directed “ to take the utmost care that nothing should 
be prifited contrary to the orthodox faith.” There wa.s 
thus a dread of religious discussion ; a teiTor lest truth 
should emerge. 

But these frantic struggles of the povrers of igno- 
rance were unavailing. Intellectual intereommunica- 
tion among men was secured. It culminhted in the 
modem newspaper, which daily gives its contempora- 
neous intelligence from all parts of the world. Beading 
became a common occupation. In ancient society that 
art was possessed by comparatively few persons. Mod- 



294 


EFFECTS OF MARITIME ENTERPRISE. 


em society owes some of its most striking charactenstics 
to this change. 

Such was the result of bringing into Europe the 
maniifacture of paper and the printing-press. In like 
manner the introduction of the mariner’s compass wa« 
followed by imposing, material and moral effects. These 
were — the discovery of America in consequence of the 
rivalry of* fhe Venetians and Genoese about the India 
trade ; the doubling of Africa by De Gama ; and the 
circumnavigation of the earth by Magellan. "With re- 
spect to the last, the grandest of all human undertakings, 
it is to be remembered that Catholicism had irrevocably 
committed itself to the dogma of a flat earth, with the 
sky as the floor of heaven, and hell in the under-world. 
Some of the Fathers, whose authority was held to be 
paramount, had, as we have previously said, fmoiished 
philosophical and religious arguments against the globu- 
lar form. The controversy had now suddenly come to 
an end — the Church was found to be in eiTor. 

The correction of tluat geographical error was by no 
means the only important result that followed the thi’ee 
great voyages. The spirit of Columbus, De Gama, 
Magellan, diffused itself among all the enterprising men 
of Western Europe. Society had been hitherto living 
under the dogma of “ loyalty to the king, obedience to 
the Church.” It had therefore been living for others, 
not for itself. The political effect of that dogma had 
culminated in the Crusades. Countless thousands had 
perished iff wars that Qould bring them no reward, and 
pf which the result had been conspicuous failure. Ex- 
perience had revealed the fact that the only gainers 
were the pontiffs, cardinals, and other ecclesiastics in 
Eome, and the shipmasters of Venice. But, when it 
became known that the wealth of Mexico, Peru, and 



INDIVIDUALISM. 


295 


India, might he shared by any one who had enterprise 
and courage, the motives that had animated the restless 
populations of Europe suddenly changed. The story of 
Cortez and Pizarro found enthusiastic listeners every- 
jvhere. Maritime adventure supplanted religious en- 
thusiasm. 

If we attempt to isolate the principle that lay at 
the basis of the wonderful social changes thafr now took 
place, we may recognize it without difficulty. Hereto- 
fore each man had dedicated his services to his supe- 
rior — ^feudal or ecclesiastical ; now he had resolved to 
gather the fruits of his exertions himself. Individual- 
ism was becoming predominant, loyalty was declining 
into a sentiment. We shall now see how it was with 
the Chmeh. 

Individualism rests on the principle that a man shall 
be his own master, that he shall have liberty to form 
his own opinions, freedom to carry into eflEect his re- 
solves. He is, therefore, ever brought into competition 
with his fellow-men. His life is a display of euergj\ 

To remove the stagnation of centuries from Euro- 
pean life, to vivify suddenly what had hitherto been an 
inert mass, to impart to it individualism, was to bi’ing 
it into conflict with the influences that had been oppress- 
ing it.* All through the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies uneasy strugglings gave a premonition of what 
was coming. In the early part of the sixteenth (151Y), 
the battle was joined. Individualism found its embodi- 
ment in a sturdy German monk, and therefcne, perhaps 
necessarily, asserted its rights under theological forms. 
There were some preliminary skirmishes about indul- 
gences and other minor matters, but very soon the teal 
cause of dispute came plainly into view. Martin Lu- 
ther refused to think as he was ordered to do by his eo 



296 


THE REFORMATION. 


clesiastical superiors at Eome; he asserted that he’ had 
an inalienable right to interpret the Bible for himself. ^ 

At her first glance, Kome saw nothing in Martin 
Luther but a vulgar, insubordinate, quarrelsome monk 
Could the Inquisition have laid hold of him; it would, 
have speedily disposed of his affair ; but, as the conflict 
went on, it was discovered that Martin was not standing 
alone. Ma*ny thousands of men, as resolute as himself, 
were coming up to his support ; and, while he carried 
on the combat with writings and words, they made good 
his propositions with the sword. 

The vilification which was poured on Luther and 
his doings was so bitter as to be ludicrous. It was de- 
clared that his fatlier was not his mother’s husband, but 
an impish incubus, who had deluded her ; that, after ten 
years’ struggling with his conscience, he had become an 
atheist ; that he denied the immortality of the soul : 
that he had composed hymns in honor of drunkenness, 
a vice to which ho was unceasingly addicted ; that he 
blasphemed the Holy Scriptures, and particularly Moses ; 
that he did not believe a word of what he preached ; 
that he had called the Epistle of St. James a thing of 
straw; and, above all, that the Eeformation was no 
work of his, but, in reality, was due to a certain astro- 
logical position of the stars. It was, however, a vulgar 
saying among the Koman ecclesiastics that Erasmus laid 
the egg of the Reformation, and Luther hatched it. 

Rome at fimt made the mistake of supposing that 
this was nothing more than a casual outbreak ; she failed 
to discern that it was, in fact, the culmination of an inter- 

« r * * 

nal movement wliich for two centuries had been going on 
in Europe, and wliich had been hourly gathering force ; 
that, had there been nothing else, the existence of three 
popes — three obediences — would have compelled men to 



DECOMPOSITION OF PROTESTANTISM. 


297 


link, to deliberate, to conclude for tliemselves. The 
Councils of Constance and Basle taught them that there 
was a higher power than the popes. The long and 
bloody wars that ensued were closed by the Peace of 
Westphalia; and then it was found that Central and 
Northern Europe had cast off the intellectual tyranny 
of Eome, that individualism had carried its point, and 
had established the right of every man to* think for 
himself. 

But it was impossible that the establishment of this 
right of private judgment should end with the rejection 
of Catholicism. Early in the movement some of the 
most distinguished men, such as Erasmus, who had been 
among its first promoters, abandoned it. They per- 
ceived that many of the Reformers entertained a bit- 
ter dislike of learning, and they were afraid of being 
brought under bigoted caprice. The Protestant party, 
having thus established its existence by dissent and sep- 
aration, must, in its turn, submit to the operation of the 
same principles. A decomposition into many subordi- 
nate sects was incritable. And these, now that they 
had no longer any thing to fear from their great Italian 
adversaiy, commenced partisan warfares on each other. 
As, in different countries, first one and then another 
sect rose to power, it stained itself with cruelties perpe- 
trated upon its competitors. The mortal retaliations 
that had ensued, when, in the chances of the times, the 
oppressed got the better of their oppressors, convinced 
the contending sectarians that they mustir concede to 
their competitors what they clainied for themselves ; and 
thus, from their broils and their crimes, the great prin- 
ciple of toleration extricated itself. But tolerati^jn is 
only an intermediate stage ; and, as the intellectual de- 
composition of Protestantism keeps going on, that tran- 



398 


TOLERATION. 


sitional condition will lead to a higher and nobler state 
— the hope of philosophy in all past ages of the world — 
a social state in which there shall be nnfettered freedom 
for thought. Toleration, except when extorted by fear, 
can only come from those who are capable of entertain-, 
ing and respecting other opinions than their own. It 
can therefore only come from philosophy. History 
teaches us «aly too plainly that fanaticism is stimulated 
by religion, and neutralized or eradicated by philoso- 
phy- 

The avowed object of the Eoformation was, to re- 
move from Christianity the pagan ideas and pagan rites 
engrafted upon it by Constantine and his successors, 
in their attempt to reconcile the Koman Empire to it. 
The Protestants designed to bring it back to its primi- 
tive purity ; and hence, while restoring the ancient doc- 
trines, they cast out of it all such practices as the ado- 
ration of the Virgin Mary and the invocation of saints. 
The Virgin Mary, we are assured by the Evangelists, 
had accepted the duties of married life, and borne to 
her husband several children. In the prevailing idola- 
try, she had ceased to be regarded as the carpenter’s 
wife; she had become the queen of heaven, and the 
mother of God. 

The science of the Arabians followed the invading 
track of their literature, which had come into Clm'sten- 
dom by two routes — the south of France, and Sicily. 
Favored by the exile of the popes to Avignon, and by 
the Great Suhism, it made good its foothold in Upper 
Italy. The ‘Aristotelian or Inductive philosophy, clad 
iri the Saracenic costume that AveiToes had given it, 
made many secret and not a few open friends. It found 
many minds eager to receive and able to apprecLato it. 
Among these were Leonardo da Vinci, who proclaimed 



DA VINCI. 


299 


tlie'fimdamental principle that expeiiment and observa- 
tion are the only reliable foundations of reasoning in sci- 
ence, that experiment is the only trustworthy interpreter 
of Nature, and is essential to the ascertainment of laws. 
„He showed that the action of two perpendicular forces 
upon a point is the same as that denoted by the diagonal 
of a rectangle, of which they represent the sides. From 
this the passage to the proposition of oblique* forces was 
very easy. This proposition was rediscovered by Ste- 
vinus, a century later, and applied by him to the ex- 
planation of the mechanical powers. Da Vinci gave a 
clear exposition of the theory of forces applied obliquely 
on a lever, discovered the laws of friction subsequently 
demonstrated by Amontons, and understood the prin- 
ciple of virtual velocities. He treated of the conditions 
of descent of bodies along inclined planes and circular 
arcs, invented the camera-obscum, discussed correctly 
several physiological problems, and foreshadowed some 
of the great conclusions of modem geology, such as the 
nature of fossil remains, and the elevation of continents. 
He explained the eartii-light reflected by the moon. 
With surprising versatility of genius he excelled as a 
sculptor, architect, engineer; was thoroughly versed in 
the astronomy, anatomy, and chemistry of his times. 
In painting, he was the rival of Michel Angelo ; in a 
competition between them, he was considered to have 
established his superiority. His Last Supper,” on the 
wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of Sta. 
Maria delle Grazie, is well known, from the numerous 
engi-avings and copies that have been made 'of it. 

Once fiimly established in the north of Italy, Sci- 
ence soon extended her sway over the entire penin- 
sula. The increasing number of her devotees is indi- 
cated by the rise and rapid multiplication of learned 



300 


ITALIAN SCIENTIHC SOCIETIES. 


societies. These were reproductions of the Moorish 
ones that had formerly existed in Granada and Cordova. 
As if to mark by a monument the track through which 
civilizing influences had come, the Academy of Tou- 
louse, founded in 1345, has survived to our oWn times. . 
It represented, however, the gay literature of the south 
of France, and was known under the fanciful title <rf 
“ the Acadeihy of Floral Games.” The flrst society for 
the promotion of physical science, the Academia Se- 
cretorum Natura;, was founded at Naples, by Baptista 
Porta. It was, as Tiraboschi relates, dissolved by the 
ecclesiastical authorities. The Lyncean was founded by 
Prince Frederic Cesi at Rome ; its device plainly indi- 
cated its intention : a lynx, with its eyes turned upward 
toward heaven, tearing a triple-headed Cerberus with 
its claws. The Accademia del Cimento, established at 
Florence, 1657, held its meetings in the ducal palace. 
It lasted ten years, and was then suppressed at the in- 
stance of the papal government ; as an equivalent, the 
brother of the grand-duke was made a cardinal. It 
numbered many great men, such as Torricelli and Cas- 
telli, among its members. The condition of admission 
into it ’was an abjuration of all faith, and a resolution to 
inquire into the truth. These societies extricated the 
cultivators of science from the isolation in which* they 
had hitherto lived, and, by promoting their intercom- 
munication and union, imparted activity and strength to 
them all. 


INTQLLECTUAL INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE. 

Returning now from this digression, this historical 
sketch of the circumstances under which science was in- 
troduced into Europe, I pass to the consideration of 
its manner of action and its results. 



INTELLECTUAL INFLUENCE OP SCIENCE. 301 


. The influence of science on modern civilization lias 
‘ been twofold: 1. Intellectual; 2. Economica', Under 
these titles we may conveniently consider it. 

Intellectually it overthrew the authority of tradi- 
’ tion. It refused to accept, unless accompanied by proof, 
the dicta of any master, no matter how eminent or 
honored his name. The conditions of admission into 
the Italian Accademia del Cimento, and ’the motto 
adopted by the Koyal Society of London, illustrate the 
position it took in this respect. 

It rejected the supernatural and miraculous as evi- 
dence in physical discussions. It abandoned sign-proof 
such as the Jews in old days required, and denied that 
a demonstration can be given through an illustration 
of something else, thus casting aside the logic that had 
been in voguo for many centuries. 

In physical inquiries, its mode of procedure was, to 
test the value of any proposed hypothesis, by executing 
computations in any special case on the basis or prin- 
ciple of that hypothesis, and then, by performing an ex- 
periment or making an observation, to ascertain whether 
the result of these agreed with the result of the com- 
putation. If it did not, the hypothesis was to be re- 
jected. 

We may here introduce an illustration or two of 
this mode of procedure : 

Kewton, suspecting that the influence of the earth’s 
attraction, gravity, may extend as far as the moon, and 
be the force that causes her, to revolve In her orbit 
roimd the earth, calculated that, by her motion in hjsr 
orbit, she was deflected from the tangent thirteen feet 
every minute^ but, by ascertaining the space through 
which bodies would fall in one minute at the earth’s 
surface, and supposing it to be diminished in the ratio 



802 theories op gravitation and phlogiston. 


of the inverse square, it appeared that the attraction at 
the moon’s orbit would draw a body through more than, 
fifteen feet. He, therefore, for the time, considered 
liis hypothesis as unsustained. Snt it so happened that 
Picard shortly afterward executed more corre^y a new* 
measnrenient of a degree ; this changed the estimated 
magnitude of the earth, and the distance of the moon, 
which was' haeasured in earth-semidiameters., Hewton 
now renewed his computation, and, as I have related on 
a previous page, as it drew to a close, foreseeing that a 
coincidence was about to be established, was so much 
agitated that he was obliged to ask a friend to complete 
it. The hypothesis was sustained. 

A second instance will sufficiently illustrate the 
method under consideration. It is presented by the 
chemical theory of phlogiston. Stahl, the author of 
this theoiy, asserted that there is a principle of inflam- 
mability, to which he gave the name phlogiston, having 
the quality of uniting with substances. Thus, when 
what we now term a metallic oxide was united to it, 
a metal was produced; and, if the phlogiston were 
withdrawn, the metal passed back into its earthy or oxi- 
dized 'state. On this principle, then, the metals were 
compound bodies, earths combined with phlogiston. 

But during the eighteenth century the balance was 
introduced as an instrument of chemical research. How, 
if the phlogistic hypothesis be true, it would follow that 
a metal should be the heavier, its oxide the lighter body, 
for the fofhaer contaii^s something — ^phlogiston — that- 
h^ been ad^ed to the latter. But, on weighing a por- 
tion of any metal, and also the oxide producible from 
it, the latter proves to be the heavier, and here the phlo- 
gistic hypothesis fails. Still further, on continuing the 
investigation, it may be shown that the oxide or calx, as 



SCIENCE AND ECOLESIASTICISM. 


303 


it jised to be called, has become heavier by combining 
•witli one of the ingredients of the air. 

To Lavoisier is usually attributed this test experi- 
ment ; but the fact that the weight of a metal increases 
•by calcination was established by earlier European ex- 
perimenters, and, indeed, was well known to the Ara- 
bian chemists. Lavoisier, however, was the first to reo- 
ognize its great importance. In his hands it’ produced a 
revolution in chemistiy. 

The abandonment of the phlogistic theory is an il- 
lustration of the readiness with which scientific hypoth- 
eses are surrendered, when found to be wanting in ac- 
cordance with facts. Authority and tradition pass for 
nothing. Every thing is settled by an appeal to Nature. 
It is assumed that the answers she gives to a practical 
interrogation will ever be true. 

Comparing now the philosophical principles on which 
science was proceeding, with the principles on which 
ecclesiasticism rested, we see that, while the former re- 
pudiated tradition, to the latter it was the main support; 
while the former insisted on the agreement of calcula- 
tion and observation, or the correspondence of reason- 
ing and fact, the latter leaned upon mysteries ; while 
the former summarily rejected its own theories, if it 
saw that they could not be coordinated with Natoe, the 
latter found merit in a faith that blindly accepted the 
inexplicable, a satisfied contemplation of “ things above 
reason.” The alienation between the two continually 
increased. On one side there was a sentiment of dis- 
dain, on the other a sentiment of hatred. . Impartial 
witnesses on all hands perceived that science was rapid- 
ly undermining ecclesiasticism. 

Mathematics had thus become the great instrument 



804 


MATHEMATICS. 


of scientific research, it had become the instrumpnt 
of scientific reasoning. In one respect it may be said 
that it reduced the operations of the mind to a mechani- 
cal process, for its symbols often saved the labor of 
thinking. ,,The habit of mental exactness it encouraged 
extended to other branches of thought, and produced 
an intellectual revolution. No longer was it possible' 
to be satidSed with miracle-proof, or the logic that had 
been relied upon throughout the middle ages. Not 
only did it thus influence the manner of thinking, 
it also changed the direction of thought. Of this we 
may be satisfied by comparing the subjects considered 
in the transactions of the various learned societies with 
the discussions that had occupied the attention of the 
middle ages. 

But the use of mathematics was not limited to the 
verification of theories ; as above indicated, it al^ fur 
nished a means of predicting what had hitherto been 
unobserved. In this it offered a counterpart to the 
prophecies of ecclesiasticism. The discovery of Nep- 
tune is an instance of the kind fm’nished by astronomy, 
and that of conical refraction by the optical theory of 
undulations. 

But, while this great instrument led to such a won- 
derful development in natural science, it was itself un- 
dergoing development — improvement. Let us in a few 
lines recall its progress. 

The germ of algebra may be discerned in the works 
of Diopha^tus of Alexandria, who is supposed to have 
Jived in the second century of our era. In that Eg3rp- 
tiai} school Euclid had formerly collected the great 
truths of geometry, and arranged them in logical se- 
quence. Archimedes, in Syracuse, had attempted the 
solution of the higher problems by the method of ex- 



MATHEMATICS. 


305 


hjiustions. Such was the tendency of things that, had 
the patronage of science been continued, algebra would 
inevitably have been invented. 

To the Arabians we owe our knowledge of tlio 
rudiments of algebra ; we owe to them tjje very name 
under which this branch of mathematics passes. They 
had carefully added, to the remains of the Alex- 
andrian School, improvements obtained in* India, and 
had communicated to the subject a certain consistency 
and fonn. The knowledge of algebra, as they pos- 
sessed it, was first brought into Italy about the begin- 
ning of the thirteenth century. It attracted so lit- 
tle attention, that nearly three hundred years elapsed 
before any European work on the subject appeared. In 
1496 Paccioli published his book entitled “ArteJVIag- 
giore,” or Alghebra.” In 1601, Cardan, of Milan, gave 
a method for the solution of cubic equations ; other im- 
provements were contributed by Scipio Ferreo, 1508, by 
Tartalea, by Vieta. The Germans now took up the 
subject. At this time the notation was in an imperfect 
state. 

The publication of the Geometry of Descartes, which 
contains the application of algebra to the definition and 
investigation of curve lines (1637), constitutes an epoch 
in the histoiy of the mathematical sciences. Two years 
previously, Cavalieri’s work on Indivisibles had ap- 
peared. This method was improved by Torricelli and 
others. The way was now open for the development 
of the Infinitesimal Calctilus, the method of^ Fluxions of 
Newton, and the Differential and Integral Calculus pf 
Leibnitz. Though in his possession many years previ- 
ously, Newton published nothing on Fluxions until 
1704 ; the imperfect notation he employed retarded 
very much the application of his method. Meantime, 

X 



306 


MATHEMATICS. 


on tlie Continent, very largely through the brilliant solji- 
tions of some of the higlier problems, accomplished by 
the Bemouillis, the Calculus of Leibnitz was univer- 
sally accepted, and improved by many mathematicians. 
An extraoi’dinary development of the science now took 
place, and continued throughout the century. To the 
Binomial theorem, previously discovered by Newton, 
Taylor now added, in his “Method of Increments,” the 
celebrated theorem that beam his name. Tliis was in 
lYlS. The Calculus of Partial Differences was intro- 
duced by Euler in 1734. It was extended by D’Alem- 
bert, and was followed by that of Variations, by Euler 
and Lagrange, and by the method of Derivative Func- 
tions, by Lagrange, in 1772. 

But it was not only in Italy, in Germany, in England, 
in France, that this great movement in mathematics was 
witnessed ; Scotland had added a new gem to the intel- 
lectual diadem with which her brow is encircled, by the 
grand invention of Logarithms, by Napier of Merohi.s- 
ton. It is impossible to give any adequate conception 
of the scientific importance of this incomparable inven- 
tion. The modern physicist and astronomer wiU most 
cordially agree with Briggs, the Professor of Mathe- 
matics in Gresham College, in his exclamation : “ I 
never saw a book that pleased me better, and that 'made 
me more wonder!” Not without reason did the im- 
mortal Kepler regard Napier “ to be the greatest man 
of his age, in the department to which he had applied 
his abilities'” Napier died in 1617. It is no exag- 
gpration to, say that this invention, by shortening the 
labors, doubled the life of the astronomer. 

I^ut here I must check myself. I must remember 
that my present purpose is not to give the history of 
mathematics, but to consider what science has done for 



MATHEMATICS. 


307 


the advancement of human civilization. And now, at 
once, recurs the question, How is ifc that the Church 
produced no geometer in her autocratic reign of twelve 
hundred jears ? 

With respect to pure mathematics this remark may 
be made: Its cultivation does not demand appliances 
that are beyond the reach of most individuals^ Astron- 
omy must have its observatory, chemistry its labora- 
tory; but mathematics asks only personal disposition 
and a few books. No great expenditures are called for, 
nor the services of assistants. One would think tliat 
nothing could be more congenial, nothing more delight- 
ful, even in the retirement of monastic life. 

Shall we answer with Eusebius, “ It is through con- 
tempt of such useless labor that we think so little of 
these matters ; we turn our souls to the exercise of bet- 
ter things ? ” Better things ! AVhat can be better than 
absolute truth? Are mysteries, miracles, lying impos- 
tures, better ? It was these that stood in the way ! 

The ecclesiastical authorities had recognized, from 
the outset of this scientific invasion, that tlie principles 
it was disseminating were absolutely irreconcilable with 
the current theology. Directly and indirectly, they 
struggled against it. So great was their detestation of 
experimental science; that they thought they had gained 
a great advantage when the Accademia del Cimento was 
suppressed. Nor was the sentiment restricted to Cathol- 
icism. When the Royal Society of London was found- 
ed, theological odium was directed against it with so 
much rancor that, doubtless, it would have been extin- , 
guished, had not King Charles II. given it his open and 
avowed support. It was accused of an intention of ‘‘de- 
stroying the established religion, of injuring the univer- 
sities, and of upsetting ancient and solid learning.” 



308 


THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


"We have only to turn over the pages of its Transac- 
tions to discern how much this society has done for the 
progress of humanity. It was incorporated in 1662, 
and has interested itself in all the great scientific move- 
ments and discoveries that have since been made. It* 
published Newton’s “Principia;” it promoted Halley’s 
voyage, the^ first scientific expedition undertaken by any 
government; it made experiments on the transfusion 
of blood, and accepted Harvey’s discovery of the circu- 
lation. The encouragement it gave to inoculation led 
Queen Caroline to beg six condemned criminals for ex- 
periment, and then to submit her own children to that 
operation. Through its encouragement Bradley accom- 
plished his great discovery, the aberration of the fixed 
stars, and that of the nutation of the earth’s axis ; to 
these two discoveries, Delambre says, we owe the exact- 
ness of modem astronomy. It promoted the improve- 
ment of the thermometer, the measure of temperature, 
and in Harrison’s watch, the chronometer, the measme 
of time. Through it the Gregorian Calendar was intro- 
duced into England, in 1152, against a violent religious 
opposition. Some of its Fellows were pursued through 
the streets by an ignorant and infuriated mob, who be- 
lieved it had robbed them of eleven days of their lives ; 
It was found necessary to conceal the name of father 
Walmesley, a learned Jesuit, who had taken deep inter- 
est in the matter ; and, Bradley happening to die during 
the commotion, it was declared that he had suffered a 
judgment from Heavea for his crime 1 
• If I were to attempt to do justice to the merits of 
tliig great society, I should have to devote many pages 
to such subjects as the achromatic telescope of Dollond ; 
the dividing engine of Eamsden, which first gave pre- 
cision to astronomical observations; the measurement 



THE ROTAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 


309 


of a degree on the earth’s surface by Mason and Dixon ; 
the expeditions of Cook in connection with the transit 
of Venus ; his circumnavigation of the eai-th ; liis proof 
that scurvy, the curse of long sea-voyages, may be 
avoided* by the use of vegetable substances ; the polar 
expeditions; the determination , of the density of the 
earth by Maskelyne’s experiments at Schehallion, and 
by those of Cavendish ; the discovery o 3E’ the planet 
Uranus by Herschel ; the composition of water by Cav- 
endish and Watt ; the determination of tlie difference of 
longitude between London and Paris ; the invention of 
the voltaic pile; the surveys of the heavens by the 
Herschels; the development of the principle of inter- 
ference by Young, and his establishment of the undula- 
toiy theory of light ; the ventilation of jails and other 
buildings ; the introduction of gas for city illumination ; 
the ascertainment of the length of the seconds-pendu- 
lum ; the measurement of tlie variations of gravity in 
different latitudes ; the operations to ascertain the cur- 
vature of the earth ; the polar expedition of Ross ; the 
invention of the safety-lamp by Davy, and his decom- 
position of the alkalies and earths ; the electro-magnetic 
discoveries of Oersted and Faraday; the calculating 
engines of Babbage ; the measures taken at tlie instance 
of liumboldt for the establishment of many magnetic 
observatories ; the verification of contemporaneous mag- 
netic disturbances over the earth’s surface. But it is 
impossible, in the limited space at my disposal, to give 
even so little as a catalogue, of its Transactions. Its 
spirit was identical with that which animated the .^c- 
cademia del Cimento, and its motto accordingly was, 
“Nullius in Verba.” It proscribed superstition, and 
permitted only calculation, observation, and experi- 
ment. 



810 


INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE. 


Kot for a moment must it be supposed that in those 
great attempts, these great successes, the Eoyal Society 
stood alone. In all the capitals of Europe there were 
Academies, Institutes, or Societies, equal in distinction, 
and equally successful in promoting human knowledge 
and modem civilization. 

THET tXJONOMICAL INFLUENCES OF SCIENCE. 

The scientific study of Nature tends not only to cor- 
rect and ennoble the intellectual conceptions of man ; 
it serves also to ameliorate his physical condition. It 
perpetually suggests to him the inquiry, how he may 
make, by their economical application, ascertained facts 
subservient to his use. 

The investigation of principles is quickly followed 
by practical inventions. This, indeed, is the character- 
istic feature of our times. It has produced a great revo- 
lution in national policy. 

In former ages wars were made for the procuring 
of slaves. A conqueror transported entire populations, 
and extorted from them forced labor, for it was only by 
human labor that human labor could be relieved. But 
when it was discovered that physical agents and mechan- 
ical combinations could be employed to incomparably 
greater advantage, public policy underwent a change ; 
when it was recognized that the application of a new 
principle, or the invention of a new machine, was better 
than the acquisition of an additional slave, peace be- 
came preferable to war.. And not only so, but nations 
possessing great slave or serf populations, as was the 
case jn America and Eussia, found that considerations 
of humanity were supported by considerations of inter- 
est, and set their bondmen free. 

Thus wo live in a period of which a characteristic is 



SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS. 


311 


* 


tl^e supplanting of human and animal labor by machines. 
, Its mechanical inventions have wrought a social revo- 
lution. We appeal to the natural, not to the super- 
natural, for the accomplishment of our ends. It is with 
‘ the “ mo'dem civilization ” thus arising that Catholicism 
refuses to be reconciled. The papacy loudly proclaims 
its inflexible repudiation of this state of aJ^rs, and 
insists on a restoration of the medieval condition of 
things. 

That a piece of amber, when rubbed, will attract 
and then repel light bodies, was a fact known six hun- 
dred years before Christ. It remained an isolated, im- 
cultivated fact, a mere trifle, until sixteen hundred yeara 
after Christ. Then dealt with by the scientific methods 
of mathematical discussion and experiment, and practi- 
cal application made of the result, it has pennitted men 
to communicate instantaneously with each other across 
continents and under oceans. It has centralized the 
world. By enabling the sovereign authority to trans- 
mit its mandates without regard to distance or to time, 
it has revolutionized statesmanship and condensed po- 
litical power. 

In the Museum of Alexandria there was a machine 
invented by Ilero, the mathematician, a little more than 
one liimdred years before Christ. It revolved by the 
agency of steam, and w’as of the form tliat wo should 
now call a reaction-engine. This, the germ of one of 
the most important inventions ever made, was remem- 
bered as a mere curiosity for seventeen huujlred years. 

Chance had nothing to do with the invention of the 
modem steam-engine. It was the product of njedi- 
tation and experiment. In the middle of the seven- 
teenth century several mechanical engineers attempted 
to utilize the properties of steam; their labors were 



312 


SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS. 


brought to perfection by Watt in the middle of the 
eighteenth. , 

The steam-engine quickly became the dinidge of 
civilization. It perfoimed the work of many millions 
of men. It gave, to those who would have been con-*- 
demned to a life of brutal toil, the opportunily of better 
pursuits. He who formerly labored might now think. 

Its easiest application was in such operations ac 
pumping, wherein mere force is required. Soon, how- 
ever, it vindicated its delicacy of touch in the industrial 
arts of spinning and weaving. It created vast manu- 
facturing establishments, and supplied clothing for the 
world. It changed the industry of nations. 

In its application, first to the navigation of rivers, 
and then to the navigation of the ocean, it more than 
quadrupled the speed that had heretofore been attained. 
Instead of forty days being requisite for the passage, 
the Atlantic might now be crossed in eight. But, in 
land transportation, its power was most strikingly dis- 
played. The admirable invention of the locomotive 
enabled men to travel farther in less than an hour than 
they formerly could have done in more than a day. 

The locomotive has not only enlarged the field of 
human activity, but, by diminishing space, it has in- 
creased the capabilities of human life. In the' swift 
tmnsportation of manufactured goods and agricultural 
products, it has become a most efficient incentive to 
human industiy. , 

The perfection of ocean steam-navigation was 
greatly promoted by tlie invention of the chronometer, 
which rendered it possible to find with accuracy the 
place of a ship at sea. The great drawback on the ad- 
vancement of science in the Alexandrian School was 
tlie want of an instrument for the measurement of 



SCIENTIFIC INVENTIONS. 


313 


time, and one for the measurement of temperature — 
the chronometer and the thermometer; indeed, the in- 
vention of the latter is essential to that of the former. 
Clepsydras, or -water-clocks, had been tried, but they 
' were deficient in accuracy. Of one of them, ornament- 
ed -with the signs of the zodiac, and destroyed by cer- 
tain primitive Christians, St. Polycarp significantly re- 
marked, “ In all these monstrous demons is ^een an art 
hostile to God.” Not until about 1680 did the chro- 
nometer begin to approach accuracy. Hooke, the con- 
temporary of Newton, gave it the balance-wheel, with 
the spiral spring, and various escapements in succession 
were devised, such as the anchor, the dead-beat, the 
duplex, the remontoir. Provisions for the variation of 
temperature were introduced. It was brought to perfec- 
tion eventually by Harrison and Arnold, in their hands 
becoming an accurate measure of the flight of time. 
To the invention of the chronometer must be added 
that of the reflecting sextant by Godfrey. This per- 
mitted astronomical observations to be made, notwith- 
standing the motion of a ship. 

Improvements in ocean navigation are exercising 
a powerful influence on the distribution of mankind. 
They are increasing the amount and altering the char- 
acter of colonization. 

But not alone have these great discoveries and in- 
ventions, the offspring of scientific investigation, changed 
the lot of the human race ; very many minor ones, per- 
haps individually insignificant, ^have in their aggregate 
accomplished sm’prising effects. The conimencing cul- 
tivation of science in the fourteenth century gave 'a 
wonderful stimulus to inventive talent, directed ntbinly 
to useful practical results ; and this, subsequently, was 
greatly encouraged by the system of patents, which 



814 


DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENT. 


secure to the originator a reasonable portion of the hen* 
©fits of his skill. It is suflBeient to refer in the most^ 
cursory manner to a few of these improvements; we 
appreciate at once how much they have done. The 
introduction of the saw-mill gave wooden floors to* 
houses, banishing those of gypsum, tile, or stone ; im- 
provements cheapening the manufacture of glass gave 
windows, making possible the warming of apartments 
However, it was not until the sixteenth century that 
glazing could be well done. The cutting of glass by the 
diamond was then introduced. The addition of chim- 
neys purified the atmosphere of dwellings, smoky and 
sooty as the huts of savages ; it gave that indescribable 
blessing of northern homes — a cheerful fireside. Hith- 
erto a hole in the roof for the escape of the smoke, a pit 
in the midst of the fioor to contain the fuel, and to be 
covered with a lid when the curfew-bell sounded or 
night came, such had been the cheerless and inadequate 
means of warming. 

Though not without a bitter resistance on the part 
of the clergy, men began to think that pestilences are 
not punishments infiicted by God on society for its 
religious shortcomings, but the physical consequences 
of filth and wretchedness;, that the proper mode of 
avoiding them is not by praying to the saints, blit by 
insuring personal and municipal cleanliness. In the 
twelfth century it was found necessary to pave the 
streets of Paris, the stench in them was so dreadful. 
At once dysenteries and spotted fever diminished; a 
sanitary condition approaching that of the Moorish cit- 
ies of Spain, which had been paved for centuries, was 
attaihed. In that now beautiful metropolis it was for- 
bidden to keep swine, an oidinance resented by the 
monks of the abbey of St. Anthony, who demanded that 



MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENTS. 


315 


the pigs of that saint should go where they chose; tlie 
government was obliged to compromise the matter by 
requiring that bells should be fastened to the animals’ 
necks. King Philip, the son of Louis the Fat, had been 
•killed by his horse stumbling over a sow. Prohibitions 
were published against throwing slops out of the win- 
dows. In 1870 an eye-witness, the author of this book, 
at the close of the pontifical rule in Pome, found that, 
in walking the ordure-defiled streets of that city, it was 
more necessary to inspect the earth than to contemplate 
the heavens, in order to preserve personal purity. Until 
the beginning of the seventeenth century, the streets of 
Berlin were never swept. There was a law that every 
countryman, who came to market with a cart, should 
cany back a load of dirt ! 

Paving was followed by attempts, often of an imper- 
fect kind, at the construction of drains and sewers. It 
had become obvious to all reflecting men that these 
were necessary to the preservation of health, not only 
in towns, but in isolated houses. Then followed the 
lighting of the public thoroughfares. At first houses 
facing the streets were compelled to have candles or 
lamps in their windows ; next the system that had been 
followed with so much advantage in Coi’dova and Gra- 
nadar-^of having public lamps — was tried, but this was 
not brought to perfection mitil the present century, 
when lighting by gas was invented. Contemporaneous- 
ly with public lamps wei'c improved organizations for 
night-watchmen and police. 

By the sixteenth century, mechanical invfentions and 
manufacturing improvements were exercising a conspi(V 
uous influence on domestic and social life. There Were 
looking-glasses and clocks on the walls, mantels over the 
fireplaces. Though in many districts the kitchen-fire 



816 


DOMESTIC IMFROYEMENTS. 


was still supplied with turf, the use of coal, began to 
prevail. The table in the dining-room offered new deli- 
cacies; commerce was bringing to it foreign products; 
the coarse drinks of the North were supplanted by the 
delicate wines of the South. Ice-houses Were con. 
structed. The bolting of flour, introduced at the wind- 
mills, had given whiter and finer bread. By degrees 
things thftf had been rarities became common — ^Indian- 
com, the potato, the turkey, and, conspicuous in the 
long list, tobacco. Forks, an Italian invention, displaced 
the filthy use of the fingers. It may be said that the 
diet of civilized men now underwent a radical change. 
Tea came from China, coffee from Arabia, the use of 
sugar from India, and these to no insignificant degree 
supplanted fermented liquors. Carpets replaced on the 
floors the layer of straw; in the chambers there ap- 
peared better beds, in the wardrobes cleaner and more 
frequently-changed clothing. In many towns the aque- 
duct was substituted for the public foimtain and the 
street-pump. Ceilings which in the old days would 
have been dingy with soot and dirt, were now decorated 
with ornamental frescoes. Baths were more commonly 
resorted to ; there was less need to use perfumery for 
the concealment of personal odors. An increasing taste 
for the innocent pleasures of horticulture was mani- 
fested, by the introduction of many foreign flowers in 
the gardens — the tuberose, the auricula, the crown im- 
perial, the Persian lily, the ranunculus, and African 
marigolds.*' In the streets there appeared sedans, then 
^close carria^s, and at length hackney-coaehes. 

Among the dull rustics mechanical improvements 
forced their way, and gradually attained, in the imple- 
ments for ploughing, so'wing, mowing, reaping, thrash- 
ing, the perfection of our own times. 



MERCANTILE INVENTIONS. 


317 


It began to be recognized, in spite of the preaching 
of the mendicant orders, that poverty is the source of 
crime, the obstruction to knowledge ; that the pursuit of 
riches by commerce is far better than the acquisition 
*'of power by war. For, though it may be true, as Mon- 
tesquieu says, that, while commerce unites nations, it 
antagonizes individuals, and makes a traffic of morality, 
it alone can give unity to the world ; its dreaW, its hope, 
is universal peace. 

Though, instead of a few pages, it would require vol- 
umes to record adequately the ameliorations that took 
place in domestic and social life after science began to 
exert its beneficent influences, and inventive talent came 
to the aid of industry, there are some things which can- 
not be passed in silence. From the port of Barcelona 
the Spanish khalifs had earned on an enormous com- 
merce, and they with their coadjutors — Jewish merchants 
— had adopted or originated many commercial inven- 
tions, which, with matters of i>ure science, they had 
transmitted to the trading communities of Europe. The 
art of book-keeping by double entry was thus brought 
into Upper Italy. The different kinds of insurance 
were adopted, though strenuously resisted by the clergj'. 
They opposed fire and marine insurance, on the ground 
that it is a tempting of Providence. Life insurance 
was regarded as an act of interference with the conse- 
quences of God’s will. Houses for lending money on 
interest and on pledges, that is, banking and pawnbrok- 
ing establishments, were bitterjy denounced, and espe- 
cially was indignation excited against the taking of higli 
rates of interest, which was stigmatized as usury — a 
feeling existing in some backward communities up to 
the present day. Bills of exchange in the present fonn 
and terms were adopted, the office of the public notary 



318 


MEDICAL IMPROVEMENTS. 


established, and protests for dishonored obligations re- 
sorted to. Indeed, it may be said, with but little exag-^ 
geratioii, that the commercial machinery now used wag 
thus introduced. I have already remarked that, in con- 
sequence of the discovery of America, the front of Eu-* 
rope had been changed. Many rich Italian merchants, 
and many enterprising Jevrs, had settled in Holland, 
England, France, and brought into those countries vari- 
ous mercantile devices. The Jews, who cared nothing 
about papal maledictions, were enriched by the pontifi- 
cal action in relation to the lending of money at high 
interest; but Pius II., perceiving the mistake that had 
been made, withdrew his opposition. Pawnbroking es- 
tablishments were finally authorized by Leo X., who 
threatened excommunication of those who wrote against 
them. In their turn the Protestants now exhibited a 
dislike against establishments thus authorized by Eome. 
As the theological dogma, that the plague, like the 
earthquake, is an unavoidable visitation from God for 
the sins of men, began to be doubted, attempts were 
made to resist its progress by the establishment of quar- 
antines. When the Mohammedan discovery of inocu- 
lation was brought from Constantinople in 1721, by 
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, it was so strenuously re- 
sisted by the clergy, that nothing short of its adoption 
by the royal family of England brought it into use. A 
similar resistance was exhibited when Jenner introduced 
his great improvement, vaccination ; yet a century ago 
it was the exception to see a face unpitted by small- 
pox — now it is the exception to see one so disfigured. 
In like manner, when the great American discovery of 
anoesthetics was applied in obstetrical cases, it was dis- 
couraged, not so much for physiological reasons, as un- 
der the pretense that it was an impious attempt to escape 



MAGIC AND MIRACLES. 


319 

from the curse denounced against all women in Genesis 
iii. 16. 

Inventive ingenuity did not restrict itself to the 
production of useful contrivances, it added amusing 
'ones. Soon after the introduction of science into Italy, 
the houses of the virtuosi began to abound in all lands of 
curious mechanical surprises, and, as they were termed, 
magical effects. In the latter the inventtdn of the 
magic-lantern greatly assisted. Not withoiit reason did 
the ecclesiastics detest experimental philosophy, for a 
result of no little importance ensued — the juggler be- 
came a successful rival to the miracle-worker, "the 
pious frauds enacted in the churches lost their wonder 
when brought into competition with the tricks of the 
conjm-er in the market-place : he breathed flame, walked 
on burning coals, held red-hot iron in his teeth, drew 
basketfuls of eggs out of his mouth, worked miracles 
by marionettes. Yet the old idea of the supernatural 
was with difficulty destroyed. A home, wdiose master 
had taught him many tricks, Avas tried at Lisbon in 1601, 
found guilty of being possessed by the devil, and was 
burnt. Still later than that many witches w'cre brought 
to the stake. 

Once fairly introduced, discovery and invention have 
unceasingly advanced at an accelerated pace. Each con- 
tinually reacted on the other, continually they sapped 
supernaturalism. De Dominis commenced, and New- 
ton completed, the explanation of the rainbow; they 
showed that it was not the weapon of warfabe of God, 
but the accident of rays of light in drops of vjater. De 
Dominis was decoyed to Rome through the promise of 
an archbishopric, and the hope of a cardinal’s hat. tie 
was lodged in a fine residence, but carefully watched. 
Accused of having suggested a concord between Rome 



320 DISCOVERIES IN ASTRONOMY AND CHEMISTRY. 


and England, he was imprisoned in the castle of St. 
Angelo, and there died. He was brought in his coflSn 
before an ecclesiastical tribnnal,^ adjudged guilty o^ 
heresy, and his body, with a heap of heretical books, was 
cast into the flames. Franklin, by demonstrating th^ 
identity of lightning and electricity, deprived Jupiter 
of his thunder-bolt. The marvels of superstition were 
displaced ^bfy the wonders of truth. The two telescopes, 
the reflector and the achromatic, inventions of the last 
century, permitted man to penetrate into the infinite 
grandeurs of the universe, to recognize, as far as such a 
thiflg is possible, its illimitable spaces, its measureless 
times ; and a little later the achromatic microscope placed 
before his eyes the world of the infinitely small. The 
air-balloon carried him above the clouds, the diving- 
bell to the bottom of the sea. The thermometer gave 
him true measures of the variations of heat ; the barome- 
ter, of the pressure of the air. The introduction of the 
balance imparted exactness to chemistry, it proved the 
indestructibility of matter. The discovery of oxygen, 
hydrogen, and many other gases, the isolation of alumi 
num, calcium, and other metals, showed that earth and 
air and water are not elements. With an enterprise 
that can never be too much commended, advantage was 
taken of the transits of Venus, and, by sending dxpedi 
tions to different regions, the distance of the earth from 
the sun was determined. The step that European intel- 
lect had made between 1456 and 1759 was illustrated 
by Halley^s comet. When it appeared in the former 
year, it wai considered as the harbinger of the vengeance 
'of God, the dispenser of the most dreadful of his retri- 
butions, war, pestilence, famine. By order of the poi)e, 
all the chm*ch-bells in Europe were rung to scare it 
away, the faithful were commanded to add each day 



MISCELLANEOUS IMPROVEMENTS. 


321 


another prayer ; and, as their prayers had often in so 
marked a manner been answered in eclipses and 
droughts and rains, so on this occasion it was declared 
that a victory over the comet had been vouchsafed to 
the pope! But, in the mean time, Halley, guided by the 
revelations of Kepler and Newton, had discovered that 
its motions, so far from being controlled by the supplica- 
tions of Christendom, were guided in an elfiptic orbit 
by destiny. Knowing that Nature had denied to him 
an opportunity of witnessing the fulfillment of his daring 
prophecy, he besought the astronomers of the succeed- 
ing generation to watch for its return in 1759, and in 
that year it came. 

Whoever will in a spirit of impartiality examine 
what had been done by Catholicism for the intellectual 
and material advancement of Europe, during her long 
reign, and what has been done by science in its brief 
period of action, can, I am persuaded, come to no other 
conclusion than this, that, in instituting a comparison, 
he has established a contrast. And yet, how imperfect, 
how inadequate is the catalogue of facts I have fur- 
nished in the foregoing pages ! I have said nothing of 
the spread of instruction by the diffusion of the arts of 
reading and writing, through public schools, and the 
consequent creation of a reading community ; the modes 
of manufacturing public opinion by newspapers and re- 
views, the power of journalism, the diffusion of informa- 
tion public and private by the post-office and cheap 
mails, the individual and social advantages of newspaper 
advertisements. I have said nothing of tli^ establislv 
ment of hospitals, the first exemplar of which was the 
Invalides of Paris ; nothing of the improved prisons, 
reformatories, penitentiaries, asylums, the treatment of 
lunatics, paupers, criminals; nothing of the constniction 



S22 


OmO^TIONS AND DISCOVERIEa 


of canals, of sanitary engineering, or of census reports j 
nothing of the invention of stereotyping, bleaching by, 
chlorine, the cotton-gin, or of the marvelous contriv- 
ances with which cotton-mills are filled — contrivances 
which have given us cheap clothing, and therefore’ 
added to cleanliness, comfort, health; nothing of the 
grand advancement of medicine and surgery, or of the 
discoveries* m physiology, the cultivation of the fine arts, 
the improvement of agriculture and rural economy, the 
introduction of chemical manures and farm-machinery. 
I hAve not referred to the manufacture of iron and its 
vast affiliated industries ; to those of textile fabrics ; to 
the collection of museums of natural histoiy, antiquities, 
curiosities. I have passed unnoticed the great subject of 
the manufacture of machinery by itself — the invention 
of the slide-rest, the planing-machine, and many other 
contrivances by which engines can be constructed with 
almost mathematical correctness. 1 have said nothing 
adequate about the railway system, or the electric tele- 
graph, nor about the calculus, or lithography, the air- 
pump, or the voltaic battery ; the discovery of Uranus 
or Neptune, and more than a hundred asteroids; the 
relation of meteoric streams to comets ; nothing of the 
expeditions by land and sea that have been sent forth 
by various governments for the determination oJ im- 
portant astronomical or geographical questions ; nothing 
of the costly and accurate experiments they have caused 
to be made for the ascertainment of fundamental phys- 
ical data. I have been ,so unjust to ohr own centuiy 
that I hav^ made no allusion to some of its greatest 
scientific triumphs: its grand conceptions in natural 
history; its discoveries in magnetism and electricity; 
its invention of the beautiful aii; of photography ; its 
applications of spectrum analysis; its attempts to bring 



ADVANTAGES ARISING FBOH THEM. 


323 


chemistry under the three laws of Avogadro, of Boyle 
and Jtfariotte, and of Charles ; its artificial production 
of organic substances from inorganic material, of which 
the philosophical consequences are of the utmost im- 
•^ortance ; its reconstruction of physiology by laying the 
foundation of that science on chemistry ; its improve- 
ments and advances in topographical surveying, and in 
the correct representation of the surface of the globe. 
I have said nothing about rifled-guns and armored ships, 
nor of the revolution that has been made in the art of 
war; nothing of that gift to women, the sewing-machine ; 
nothing of the noble contentions and triumphs of the arts 
of peace — ^the industrial exhibitions and world’s fairs. 

What a catalogue have we here, and yet how imper- 
fect ! It gives merely a random glimpse at an ever-in- 
creasing intellectual commotion — a mention of things as 
they casually present themselves to view. How striking 
the contrast between this literary, this scientific activity, 
and the stagnation of the middle ages ! 

The intellectual enlightenment that surrounds this 
activity has imparted unnumbered blessings to the hu- 
man race. In Russia it has emancipated a vast serf- 
population; in America it has given freedom to four 
million negro slaves. In place of the sparse dole of 
the monasteiy-gate, it has organized charity and direct- 
ed legislation to the poor. It has shown medicine its 
true function, to prevent rather than to cure disease. 
In statesmanship it has introduced scientific methods, 
displacing random and empirical Jegislation ly a labori- 
ous ascertainment of social facts previous to the appli- • 
cation of legal remedies. So conspicuous, so impressive 
is the manner in which it is elevating men, that tlie 
hoary nations of Asia seek to participate in the boon. 
Let us not forget that our action on them must be at- 



324 


AMERICAN AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS. 


tended by their reaction on ns. If the destruction of 
paganism was completed when all the gods were brought 
to Eome and confronted there, now, when by our won- 
derful facilities of locomotion strange nations and con- 
flicting religions are brought into common presence • 

the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Brahman — modifi- 
cations of them all must ensue. In that conflict science 
alone will stand secure ; for it has given us grander 
views of the universe, more awful views' of God. 

The spirit that has imparted life to this movement, 
tha^ has animated these discoveries and inventions, is 
Individualism ; in some minds the hope of gain, in other 
and nobler ones the expectation of honor. It is, then, 
not to be wondered at that this principle found a politi- 
cal embodiment, and that, during the last centuiy, on 
two occasions, it gave rise to social convulsions — the 
American and the French Eevolutions. The former lias 
ended in the dedication of a continent to Individualism 
— there, under republican forms, before the close of the 
present century, one hundred million people, with no 
more restraint than their common security requires, will 
be pursuing an unfettered career. The latter, though 
it has modified the political aspect of all Europe, and 
though illustrated by surprising military successes, has, 
thus far, not consummated its intentions; again and 
again it has brought upon France fearful disasters. Her 
dual form of government — ^her allegiance to her two 
sovereigns^ the political and the spiritual — ^has made her 
at once th^ leader and. the antagonist of modem prog- 
• ress. With one hand she has enthroned Eeason, with 
th^ other she has reestablished and sustained the pope. 
Hor will this anomaly in her conduct cease imtil she be- 
stows a true education on all her cliildren, even on those 
of the humblest rustic. 



SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION. 


325 


The intellectual attack Inadc on existing opinions by 
the French Revolution was not of a scientific, but of a 
literary character ; it was critical and aggressive. But 
Science has never been an aggressor. She has always 
acted on the defensive, and left to her antagonist the 
making of wanton attacks. Nevertheless, literary dis- 
sent is not of such ominous import as scientific ; for lit- 
erature is, in its nature, local — science is cosmopolitan. 

K, now, we demand. What has science done for the 
promotion of modem civilization ; what has it done for 
the happiness, the well-being of society ? we shall find 
our answer in the same manner that we reached a*just 
estimate of what Latin Clmistianity had done. The read- 
er of the foregoing paragraphs would undoubtedly infer 
that there must have been an amelioi’ation in the lot of 
our race ; but, when we apply the touchstone of statis- 
tics, that inference gathers precision. Systems of phi- 
losophy and forms of religion find a measure of their 
influence on humanity in census-returns. Latin Chris- 
tianity, in a thousand years, could not double the popu- 
lation of Europe ; it did not add perceptibly to the term 
of individual life. But, as Dr. Jarvis, in his report to 
the Massachusetts Board of Health, has stated, at the 
epoch of the Reformation “the average longevity in 
GeneVa was 21.21 years; between 1814 and 1833 it was 
40.G8 ; as large a number of persons now live to seventy 
years as lived to forty, three hundred years ago. In 
1693 the British Government borrowed money by sell- 
ing annuities on lives from infancy upward, on the ba- 
sis of the average longevity. The contract was profit- 
able. Ninety-seven yeare later another tontine, or scale 
of annuities, on the basis of the same expectation oi life 
as in the previous century, was issued. These latter an- 
nuitants, however, lived so much longer than their pre- 



326 


SCIENCE AND CIVILIZATION. 


decessors, that it proved to be a very costly loan for the 
government. It was found that, while ten thousand of 
each sex in the first tontine died under the age of 
twenty-eight, only five thousand seven hundred and 
seventy-two males and six thousand four hundred ancf 
sixteen females in the second tontine died at the same 
age, one hundred years later.” 

We hdVe been comparing the spiritual with the prac- 
tical, the imaginary with the real. The maxims that 
have been followed in the earlier and the later period 
produced their inevitable result. In the former that 
maxim was, “Ignorance is the mother of Devotion;’ 
in the latter, “ Knowledge is Power.” 



CHAPTER XIL 


THE IMPENDING CEISI8. 


IndiMUwM of the approach of a religious crisis. — The predominating 
Christian Churchy the Homan, perceives this, and makes preparation 
for it. — Pitts IX. convokes an CEcumenical Council. — Relations ofihh 
different European governments to the papacy. — Relations of the 
Church to Science, as indicated by the Encyclical Letter and the 8yU 
lahus. 

Acts of the Vatican Council in relation to the infallibility of the pope, and 
to Science. — Abstract of decisions arrived at. 

Controversy between the Prussian Oovemment and the papacy. — It is a con- 
test between the State and the Church for supremacy. — Effect of dual 
government in Europe.^Declaration by the Vatican Council of its 
position as to Science, — The dogmatic constitution of the Catholic faith. 
— Its definitions respecting Cod, Revelalion, Faiths Reason. — The 
anathemas it pronounces. — Its denunciation of modem civilization. 

The Protestant Evangelical Alliance and its acts. 

General review of the foregoing definitions and acts. — Present condition oj 
the controversy, and its future prospects. 

No one who is acquainted with the present tone of 
thought in Christendom can hide from himself the fact 
that an intellectual, a religious crisis is impending. 

In all directions we see the lowering shies, we hear 
the mutterings of the coming slorm. In Germany, the 
national party is arraying itself against the ultramoA- 
tane; in France, the men of progress are struggling 
against the unprogressive, and in their contest the po- 
litical supremacy of that great country is wellnigh neu- 



328 


PREDOMINANCE OF CAinOLIClTY. 


tralized or lost. In Italy, Borne has passed into the hands 
of an excommunicated king. The sovereign pontiff, 
feigning that ho is a prisoner, is fulminating from the ' 
Vatican his anathemas, and, in the midst of the most 
convincing proofs of his manifold errors, asserting his « 
own infallibility. A Catholic archbishop with truth de- 
clares that the whole civil society of Europe seems to be 
withdrawing itself in its public life from Christianity. 
In England and America, religious persons perceive 
with dismay that the intellectual basis of faith has been 
undermined by the spirit of the age. They prepare for 
the ^preaching disaster in the best manner they can. 

The most serious trial through which society can 
pass is encountered in the exuviation of its religions 
restmints. The history of Greece and the history of 
Borne exhibit to us in an impressive manner how gi*eat 
are the perils. But it is not given to religions to en- 
dure forever. They necessarily undergo transformation 
with the intellectual development of man. How many 
countries are there professing the same religion now 
that they did at the birth of Christ ? 

It is estimated that the entire population of Europe 
is about three hundred and one million. Of these, one 
hundred and eighty-five million are Boman Catholics, 
thirty-three million are Greek Catholics. Of Protes- 
tants there are seventy-one million, separated into many 
sects. Of Jews, five million ; of Mohammedans, seven 
million. 

Of the religious subdivisions of America an accurate 
numerical sl;atement cannot be given. The whole of 
Christian ^outh America is Boman Catholic, the same 
m&y be said of Central America and of Mexico, as also 
of the Spanish and French "West India possessions. In 
the United States and Canada the Protestant population 



PREDOMINANCE OF CATHOLICITY. 


329 


predominates. To Australia tlie same remark applies 
In India the sparse Christian population sinks into in- 
significance in presence of two hundred million Mo- 
hammedans and other Oriental denominations. The 
■ Eoman Catholic Church is the most widely diffused and 
the most powerfully organized of all modem societies. 
It is far more a political than a religious combination. 
Its principle is that all power is in the clergy, and that 
for laymen there is only the privilege of obedience. 
The republican forms under wluch the Churches existed 
in primitive Christianity have gradually merged into an 
absolute centralization, with a man as vice-God at its 
head. This Church asserts that the divine commission 
under which it acts comprises civil government ; that it 
has a right to use the state for its own purposes, hut 
that the state has no right to intermeddle with it ; that 
even in Protestant countries it is not merely a coordi- 
nate government, but the sovereign power. It insists 
that the state has no rights over any thing which it de- 
clares to be in its domain, and that Protestantism, being 
a mere rebellion, has no rights at all ; that even in Prot- 
estant communities the Catholic bishop is the only law- 
ful spiritual pastor. 

It is plain, therefore, that of professing Christians 
the vast majority are Catholic ; and such is the authori- 
tative demand of the papacy for supremacy, that, in any 
survey of the present religious condition of Christendom, 
regard must be mainly had to its acts. Its movements are 
guided by the highest intelligence and skill. • Catholicism 
obeys the orders of one man, and has therefore a unity, 
a compactness, a power, which Protestant denominations 
do not possess. Moreover, it derives inestimable strength 
from the souvenirs of the great name of Borne. 

Unembarrassed by any hesitating sentiment, the 



830 


THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL. 


papacy has contemplated the coming intellectual crisis. 
It has pronounced its decision, and occupied what seems 
to it to be the most advantageous ground. 

This definition of position we find in the acts of the 
late Vatican Council. 

Pius IX., by a bull dated June 29, 1868, convoked 
an (Ecumenical Coimcil, to meet in Borne, on December 
8, 1869. Its»ses8ions ended in July, 1870. Among other 
matters submitted to its consideration, two stand forth 
in conspicuous prominence — they are the assertion of 
the infallibility of the Boman pontiff, and the defini 
tion bf the relations of religion to science. 

But the convocation of the Council was far from 
meeting with general approval. 

The views of the Oriental Churches were, for the 
most part, unfavorable. They affirmed that they saw 
a desire in the Boman pontiff to set himself up as the 
head of Christianity, whereas they recognized the Lord 
Jesus Christ alone as the head of the Church. They 
believed that the Council would only lead to new quar- 
rels and scandals. The sentiment of these venerable 
Churches is well shown by the incident that, when, in 
1867, the Nestorian Patriarch Simeon had been invited 
by the Chaldean Patriarch to return to Boman Catholic 
unity, he, in his reply, showed that there was no ’^ros 
pect for harmonious action between the East and the 
West: “You invite mo to kiss humbly the slipper of 
the Bishop of Borne ; but is he not, in eveiy respect, a 
man like yourself — ^is his dignity superior to yours? 
We will never permit to be introduced into our holy 
temples of worship images and statues, which are noth- 
ing But abominable and impure idols. What ! shall we 
attribute to Almighty God a mother, as you dare to do ? 
Away from us, such blasphemy ! ” 



EXPECTATIONS OP THE PAPACY. 


331 


Eventually, the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, 
{ronx all regions of the world, who took part in this 
Conncil, were seven hundred and four. 

Eome had seen very plainly that Science was not 
only ra{>idly undermining the dogmas of the papacy, but 
was gathering great political power. She recognized 
that all over Europe there was a fast-spreading seces- 
sion among persons of education, and that its true focus 
was North Germany. 

She looked, therefore, with deep interest on the 
Prusso-Austrian War, giving to Austria whatever en- 
couragement she could. The battle of Sadowa Vas .a 
bitter disappointment to her. 

With satisfaction again she looked upon the break- 
ing out of the Franco-Prussian W^ar, not doubting that 
its issue would be favorable to France, and therefore 
favorable to her. Here, again, she was doomed to dis- 
appointment at Sedan. 

Having now no further hope, for many years to 
come, from external war, slie resolved to see what could 
be done by internal insurrection, and the present move- 
ment in the German Empire is the result of her machi- 
nations. 

Had Austria or had France succeeded, Protestant- 
ism Vould have been overthrown along with Pnissia. 

But, while these military movements were being 
carried on, a movement of a different, an intellectual 
kind, was engaged in. Its principle was, to restore the 
worn-out mediaeval doctrines ^ and practices, carrying 
them to an extreme, no matter what the consequence 

might be. , » j- 

Not only was it asserted that the papacy has a di- 
vine right to participate in the government of all coun- 
ties, coordinately with their temporal authorities, but 



332 


EXCYCLIOAL LETTER AND SYLLABUS. 


that the supremacy of Rome in tliis matter must be 
recognised ; and that in any question between them the 
temporal authority must conform itself to her order. 

And, since the endangering of her position had been 
mainly brought about by the progress of sciODce, slic 
presumed to define its boundaries, and prescribe limits 
to its authority. Still more, she undertook to denounce 
modem civiKzation. 

These measures were contemplated soon after the 
return of his Holiness from Gaeta in 1848, and were 
undertaken by the advice of the Jesuits, who, lingering 
in thfe hope that God would work the impossible, sup- 
posed that the papacy, in its old age, might be rein- 
vigorated. The organ of the Curia proclaimed the ab- 
solute independence of the Church as regards the state ; 
the dependence of the bishops on the pope ; of the dio- 
cesan clergy on the bishops ; the obligation of the Prot- 
estants to abandon their atheism, and return to the fold ; 
the absolute condemnation of all kinds of toleration. In 
December, 1854, in an assembly of bishops, the pope 
had proclaimed the dogma of the immaculate concep- 
tion. Ten years subsequently he put forth the cele- 
brated Encyclical Letter and the Syllabus. 

The Encyclical Letter is dated December 8, 1864. 
It was drawn up by learned ecclesiastics, and sftbse- 
quently debated at the Congregation of the Holy Oflice, 
then forwarded to prelates, and finally gone over by the 
pope and cardinals. 

Many of' the clergy objected to its condemnation of 
modem civilization. Some of the cardinals were re- 
luctant to concur in it. The Catholic press accepted 
it, n6t, however, without misgivings and regrets. The 
Protestant governments i^ut no obstacle in its way ; the 
Catholic were embarrassed by it. France allowed the 



ENCYCLieAI. LETTER AND SYLLABUS. 


333 


publication only of that portion proclaiming the jubilee; 
Austria and Italy permitted its introduction, but with- 
held their approval. The political press and legislatures 
of Catholic countries gave it an u^avorable reception. 
Many deplored it as likely to widen the breach be- 
tween the Church and modem society. The Italian 
press regarded it as determining a war, without truce or 
armistice, between the papacy and modem* fcivilization. 
Even in Spain there were journals that regretted “ the 
obstinacy and blindness of the court of Eome, in brand- 
ing and condemning modem civilization.” 

It denounces that “ most pernicious and inBane*opin- 
ion, that liberty of conscience and of worship is the 
right of every man, and that this right ought, in every 
well-governed state, to be proclaimed and asserted by 
law ; and that the will of the people, manifested by 
public opinion (as it is called), or by other means, con- 
stitutes a supreme law, independent of all divine and 
human rights.” It denies the right of parents to edu- 
cate their children outside the Catholic Clmrch. It de- 
nounces “the impudence” of those who presume to sub- 
ordinate the authority of the Church and of the Apostolic 
See, “ confen-ed upon it by Christ our Lord, to the judg- 
ment of the civil authority.” Ills Holiness commends, 
to the venerable brothel’s to whom the Encyclical is ad- 
dressed, incessant prayer, and, “ in order that God may 
accede the more easily to oiir and your prayers, let us 
employ in all confidence, as our mediatrix with him, the 
Virgin Marj', mother of God, ,who sits as d queen upon 
the right hand of her only-begotten Son, oup Lord Jesus 
Christ, in a golden vestment, clothed around with vari- 
ous adornments. There is nothing she cannot ^taiu 
from him.” 

Plainly, the principle now avowed by the papacy 



334 


CONVOCATION OF THE COUNCIIi. 


must bring it into collision even with governments 
which had heretofore maintained amicable relations 
with it. Great dissatisfaction was manifested by Rus- 
sia, and the incidents that ensued drew forth from his 
Holiness an allocution (Jfovember, 1866) condemnatory 
of the course of that government. To this, Russia re- 
plied, by declaring the Concordat of 1867 abrogated. 

TJndeteri*ed by the result of the battle of Sadowa 
(July, 1866), though it was plain that the political con- 
ation of Europe was now profoundly affected, and es- 
pecially the relations of the papacy, the pope delivered 
an aliocution (June 27, 1867), confirming the Encyclical 
and Syllabus. He announced his intention of convok- 
ing an (Ecumenical Council. 

Accordingly, as we have already mentioned, in the 
following year (June 29, 1868), a bull was issued con- 
voking that Council. Misunderstandings, however, had 
now sprung up with Austria. The Austrian Reichsrath 
had adopted laws introducing equality of civil rights 
for all the inhabitants of the empire, and restricting the 
influence of the Church. This produced on the part of 
the papal government an expostulation. Acting as Rus- 
sia had done, the Austrian Government found it neces- 
sary to abrogate the Concordat of 1855. 

In France, as above stated, the publication of the 
entire Syllabus was not permitted; but Prussia, de- 
sirous of keeping on good terms with the papacy, did 
not disallow it. The exacting disposition of the papacy 
increased, fjt was openly declared that the faithful 
must now sacrifice to the Church, properly, life, and 
even, their intellectual convictions. The Protestants 
and the Greeks were invited to tender their submission. 

On the appointed day, the Council opened. Its ob- 
jects were, to translate the Syllabus into practice, to 



THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 


335 


establish the dogma of papal infallibility, and define 
the relations of religion to science. Every preparation 
had been made that the points determined on should 
be carried. ‘The bishops were informed that they were 
coming to Eome not to deliberate, but to sanction de- 
crees previoudy made by an infallible pope. No idea 
was entertained of any such thing as free discussion. 
The minutes of the meetings were not pennitted to be 
inspected ; the prelates of the opposition were hardly 
allowed to speak. On January 22, 1870, a petition, re- 
questing that the infallibility of the pope should be 
defined, was presented ; an opposition petition of the 
minority was offered. Hereupon, the deliberations of 
the minority were forbidden, and their publications pro- 
hibited. And, though the Curia had provided a com- 
pact majority, it was found expedient to issue an order 
that to carry any proposition it was not necessary that 
the vote should bo near unanimity, a simple majority 
Bufiiced. The remonstrances of the minority were al- 
together unheeded. 

As the Council pressed forward to its object, foreign 
authorities became alarmed at its reckless determination. 
A petition drawn up by the Archbishop of Vienna, and 
signed by several cardinals and archbishops, entreated 
his Holiness not to submit the dogma of infallibility for 
consideration, “ because the Church has to sustain at 
present a struggle unknown in former times, against 
men Who oppose religion itself as an institution baneful 
to human nature, and that it isi inopportune to impose 
upon Catholic nations, led into temptation by so many* 
machinations, more dogmas than the Council of Ti;pnt 
proclaimed.” It added that « the definition demanded 
would furnish fresh aims to the enemies of religion, to 
excite against the Catholic Church the resentment of 



886 


THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 


men avowedly the best.” The Austrian prime-minister 
addressed a protest to the papal government, warning* 
it against any steps that might lead to encroachments 
on the rights of Austria. The French Go'^emment 
also addressed a note, suggesting that a French bishop 
should explain to the Council the condition and the 
rights of France. To this the papal government repHed^ 
that a histop could not reconcile the double duties of 
an ambassador and a Father of the Council. Hereupon, 
the French Government, in a very respectful note, re- 
marked that, to prevent ultra opinions from becoming 
dogmas, it reckoned on the moderation of the bishops, 
and the prudence of the Holy Father ; and, to defend 
its civil and political laws against the encroachments of 
the theocracy, it had counted on public reason and the 
patriotism of French Catholics. In these remonstrances 
the North-German Confederation joined, seriously press- 
ing them on the consideration of the papal govern- 
ment. 

On April 23d, Von Amim, the Prussian embassa- 
dor, imited with Daru, the IVench minister, in sug- 
gesting to the Curia the inexpediency of reviving me- 
dieval ideas. The minority bishops, thus encouraged, 
demanded now that the relations of the spiritual ^o the 
secular power should be determined before the pope’s 
infallibility was discussed, and that it should be settled 
whether Christ had conferred on St. Peter and his suc- 
cessors a power over kings and emperors. 

No regard was paid Ao this, not even delay was con- 
sented to. - The Jesuits, who were at the bottom of the 
movement, earned their measures through the packed 
assembly with a high hand. The Council omitted no 
device to screen itself from popular criticism. Its pro- 
ceedings were conducted witli the utmost secrecy ; all 



INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE. 


337 

who took part in them were bound by a solemn oath 
to observe silence. 

On July 13th, the votes were taken. Of 601 votes, 
451 were aflSrmative. Under the majority rule, the 
measure was pronounced carried, and, five days subse- 
quently, the pope proclaimed the dogma of his infalli- 
bility. It has often been remarked that this was the 
day on which the French declared war agahlst Prussia. 
Eight days afterward the French troops were withdrawn 
from Home. Perhaps both the statesman and the phi- 
losopher will admit that an infallible pope would be a 
great harmonizing element, if only common-sense Sould 
acknowledge him. 

Hereupon, the King of Italy addresseckan autograph 
letter to the pope, setting forth in very respectful terms 
the necessity that his troops should advance and occupy 
positions indispensable to the security of his Holiness, 
and the maintenance of order ; ” that, wliile satisfying the 
national aspirations, the chief of Catholicity, surrounded 
by the devotion of the Italian populations, “ might pre- 
serve on the banks of the Tiber a glorious seat, inde- 
pendent of all human sovereignty.” 

To this his Holiness replied in a brief and caustic 
letter : I give thanks to God, who has permitted your 
majesty to fill the last days of my life with bitterness. 
For the rest, I cannot grant certain requests, nor conform 
with certain principles contained in your letter. Again, 
I call upon God, and into his hands commit my cause, 
which is his cause. I pray Go|i to grant your majesty 
many graces, to free you from dangers, an^to disiien^ 
to you his mercy which you so much need.” ^ 

The Italian troops met with but little resistance. 
They occupied Rome on September 20, 1870. A mani- 
festo was issued, setting forth the details of a plebisci- 

z 



338 


THE ITALIAN GOVBBNlffiNT. 


turn, the vote to be by ballot, the question, “ the unifi- 
cation of Italy.” Its result diowed how completely the 
popular mind in Italy is emancipated from theology. 
In the Boman provinces the number of votes on the 
lists was 167,648 ; the number who voted, 135,^91 ; the 
number who voted for annexation, 133,681 ; the num- 
ber who voted against it, 1,507 ; votes annulled, 103. 
The Farlia'hient of Italy ratified the vote of the Boman 
people for annexation by a vote of 239 to 20. A royal 
decree now announced the annexation of the Papal 
States to the kingdom of Italy, and a manifesto was is- 
8ued*indicating the details of the arrangement. It de- 
clared that “by these concessions the Italian Govern- 
ment seeks k> prove to Europe that Italy respects the 
sovereignty of the pope in conformity with the prin- 
ciple of a free Church in a free state.” 

In the Prusso-Austrian War it had been the hope of 
the papacy to restore the German Empire under Austria, 
and make Germany a Catholic nation. In the Franco- 
German War the French expected ultramontane sym- 
pathies in Germany. No means were spared to excite 
Catholic sentiment against the Protestants. No vilifi- 
cation was spared. They were spoken of as atheists ; 
they were declared incapable of being honest men ; their 
sects were pointed out as indicating that their secession 
was in a state of dissolution. “ The followers of Luther 
are the most abandoned men in all Europe.” Even the 
pope himself, presuming that the whole world had for- 
gotten all hifetory, did not hesitate to say, “ Let the Ger- 
man people^ undeistand that no other Church but that 
of Borne is the Church of freedom and progress.” 

]£Ceantime, among the clergy of Germany a party 
was organized to remonstrate against, and even resist, 
the papal usurpation. It protested against “ a man be- 



AFFAIRS IN PRUSSIA. 


335 } 


ing placed on the throne of God,” against a vice-God of 
any kind, nor would it yield its scientific convictions 
to ecclesiastical authority. Some did not hesitate to 
accuse the pope himself of being a heretic. Against 
these insuhordinates excommunications began to he ful- 
minated, and at length it was demanded that certain 
professors and teachers should he removed from their 
offices, and infallibilists substituted. With* this demand 
the Prussian Government declined to comply. 

The Prussian Government had earnestly desired to 
remain on amicable terms with the papacy ; it had no 
wish to enter on a theological quarrel ; but gradually 
the conviction was forced upon it that the question was 
not a religious but a political one — whether the power 
of the state should be used against the state. A teacher 
in a gymnasium had been excommunicated ; the gov- 
ernment, on being required to dismiss him, refused. 
The Church authorities denounced this as an attack 
upon faith. The emperor sustained his minister. The 
organ of the infallible party threatened the emperor 
with the opposition of all good Catholics, and told him 
that, in a contention with the pope, systems of govern- 
ment can and must change. It was now plain to every 
one that the question had become, “ Wlio is to be mas- 
ter in the state, the government or the Roman Church ? 
It is plainly impossible for men to live under two gov- 
ernments, one of which declares to be wrong what the 
other commands. If the government will not submit to 
the Roman Church, the two are enemies.’ J A conflict 
was thus forced upon Prussia by Rome — a conflict i|i 
which the latter, impelled by her antagonism to mo/iem 
civilization, is clearly the aggressor. 

The government, now recognizing its antagonist, 
defended itself by abolishing the Catholic department 

z2 



310 ACTION OP THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. 

in the ministry of Public Worship. This was about 
midsummer, 1871. In the following November the 
Imperial Parliament passed a law that ecclesiastics abus- 
ing their office, to the disturbance of the public peace, 
should be criminally punished. And, guided ‘by the 
principle that the future belongs to him to whom the 
school belongs, a movement arose for the purpose of 
separating life schools from the Church. 

The Jesuit party was extending and strengthening 
an organization all over Germany, based on the princi- 
ple that state legislation in ecclesiastical matters is not 
bindifig. Here was an act of open insurrection. Could 
the government allow itself to be intimidated ? The 
Bishop of Ermeland declared that he would not obey 
the laws of the state if they touched the Church. The 
government stopped the payment of his salary ; and, 
perceiving that there could be no peace so long as the 
Jesuits were permitted to remain in the country, their 
expulsion was resolved on, and carried into effect. At 
the close of 1872 his Holiness delivered an allocution, 
in which he touched on the “ persecution of the Church 
in the German Empire,” and asserted that the Church 
alone has a right to fix the limits between its domain 
and that of the state — a dangerous and inadmissible 
principle, since under the term morals the Church com- 
prises all the relations of men to each other, and asserts 
that whatever does not assist her oppresses her. Here- 
upon, a few days subsequently (January 9, 1873), four 
laws were brought foiyard by the government: 1. 
l^gulating the means by which a person might sever his 
connection with the Church; 2. Restricting the Church 
in tSe exercise of ecclesiastical punishments ; 3. Regu- 
lating the ecclesiastical power of discipline, forbidding 
bodily chastisement, regulating fines and banishments, 



THE CHURCH A POLITICAL POWER. 341 

grantiiig the privilege of an appeal to the Royal Court 
of Justice for Ecclesiastical Afiairs, the decision of which 
is final; 4. Ordaining the preliminary education and 
appointment of priests. They must have had a satis- 
factory education, passed a public examination con- 
ducted by the state, and have a knowledge of philoso- 
phy, history, and German literature. Institutions refus- 
ing to be superintended by the state are tb’be closed. 

These laws demonstrate that Germany is resolved 
that she will no longer be dictated to nor embarrassed 
by a few Italian noble families ; that she will be master 
of her own house. She sees in the conflict, not a!i affair 
of religion or of conscience, but a struggle between the 
sovereignty of state legislation and the* sovereignty of 
the Church. She treats the papacy not in the aspect of 
a religious, but of a political power, and is resolved 
that the declaration of the Prussian Constitution shall bo 
maintained, that “ the exercise of religions freedom must 
not interfere with the duties of a citizen toward the 
community and the state.” 

With truth it is affirmed that the papacy is admin- 
istered not oecumenically, not as a univensal Church, for 
all the nations, but for the benefit of some Italian fam- 
ilies. Look at its composition 1 It consists of pope, 
caidinal bishops, cardinal deacons, who at the present 
moment are all Italians; cardinal priests, nearly all 
Italians ; ministers and secretaries of the Sacred Con- 
gregation in Rome, all Italians. France has not given a 
pope since the middle ages. • It is the s^me with Aus- 
tria, Portugal, Spain. In spite of all attempts to chaTjge 
this system of exclusion, to open the dignities of the 
Church to all Catholicism, no foreigner can reach the 
holy chair. It is recognized that the Church is a do- 
main given by God to the princely Italian families. 



842 dual government in EUROPE. 

Of fifty-five members of the present College of Cardi- 
nals, forty are Italians — that is, thirty-two beyond their 
proper share. 

The stnmbling-block to the progress of Europe has 
been its dual system of government. So long as every 
nation had two sovereigns, a temporal one at home and 
a spiritual one in a foreign land— --there being differ- 
ent temporal ‘masters in different nations, but only one 
foreign master for all, the pontiff at Rome— how was 
it possible that history should present us with any thing 
n^re than a narrative of the strifes of these rival powers t 
^oef er will reflect on this state of things will see how 
it is that those nations which have shaken off the dual 
foi-m of government are those which have made the 
greatest advance. He will discern wliat is the cause 
of the paralysis which has befallen France. On one 
hand she wishes to be the leader of Europe, on the other 
she clings to a dead past. For the sake of propitiating 
her ignorant classes, she enters upon lines of policy which 
her intelligence must condemn. So evenly balanced 
are the two sovereignties under which she lives, that 
sometimes one, sometimes the other, prevails ; and not 
unfrequently the one uses the other as an engine for the 
accomplishment of its ends. 

But this dual system approaches its close. To the 
northern nations, less imaginative and less superstitious, 
it had long ago become intolerable; they rejected it 
summarily at the epoch of the Reformation, notwith- 
standing the I protestations and pretensions of Rome. 
Russia, happjer than the rest, has never acknowledged 
the influence of any foreign spiritual power. She gloried 
in her attachment to the ancient Greek rite, and saw in 
the papacy nothing more than a troublesome dissenter 
from the primitive faith. In America the temporal and 



INTENTIONS OP THE POPE. 


m 


the spiritual have been absolutely divorced — ^the latter 
is not permitted to have any thing to do with afEairs of 
Btate, though, in aU other respects liberty is conceded to 
it. The condition of the New World also satisfies us 
that botli. forms of Christianity, Catholic and Protestant, 
have lost their expansive power; neither can pass be- 
yond its long-established boundary-line — ^the Catholic 
republics remain Catholic, the Protestant* Protestant. 
And among the latter the disposition to sectarian isola- 
tion is disappearing ; persons of different denominations 
consort without hesitation together. They gather their 
current opinions from newspapers, not from the Clfhrch. 

Pius IX., in the movements we have been consider- 
ing, has had two objects in view : 1. The nwre thorough 
centralization of the papacy, with a spiritual autocrat as- 
suming the prerogatives of God at its head ; 2. Control 
over the intellectual development of the nations profess- 
ing Christianity. 

The logical consequence of the former of these is 
political intervention. He insists that in all cases the 
temporal must subordinate itself to the spiritual power ; 
all lawsr inconsistent with the interests of the Church 
must be repealed. They arc not binding on tlie faith- 
ful. In the preceding pages I have briefiy related some 
of tbe complications that have already occurred in the 
attempt to maintain this policy. 

I now come to the consideration of the manner in 
which the papacy proposes to establish its intellectual 
control; how it defines its rel^^tion to its | antagonist, 
Science, and, seeking a restoration of the mediaeval con- 
dition, opposes modem civilization, and denounces naod- 
em society. 

The Encyclical and Syllabus present the principles 
which it was the object of the Vatican Council to carry 



TOE STLLABUa 


8ii 

into practical effect. The Syllabus stigmatizes panthe* 
ism, naturalism, and absohite rationalism, denoundng 
such opinions as that God is the world ; that there is no* 
God other than Nature ; that theological matters must 
be treated in the same manner as philosophical ones; 
that the methods and principles by which the old scho- 
lastic doctors cultivated theology are no longer suitable 
to the demands of the age and the progress of science; 
tliat every man is free to embrace and profess the reli- 
gion he may believe to be true, guided by the light of 
bis reason ; that it appertains to the civil power to de- 
fine Vhat are the rights and limits in wliich the Church 
may exercise authority; that the Church has not the 
right of availing herself of force or any direct or indi- 
rect temporal power; that the Church ought to be sepa- 
rated from the state and the state from the Church; 
that it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion 
shall be held as the only religion of the state, to the 
exclusion of all otlier modes of worship ; that persons 
coming to reside in Catholic countries have a right to 
the public exercise of their own worship ; that the Ko- 
man pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to, and 
agree with, the progress of modem civilization. The 
Syllabus claims the right of the Church to control public 
schools, and denies the right of the state in that respect; 
it claims the control over marriage and divorce. 

Such of these principles as the Council found expe- 
dient at present to formularize, were set forth by it in 
“The Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic Faith.” 
The essenti^ points of this constitution, more especially 
as regards the relations of reUgion to science, we have 
now to examine. It will be understood that the follow- 
ing does not present the entire document, but only an 
abstract of what appear to be its more important parts. 



CONSTITUTION OF CATHOLIC FAITH. 


346 

This definition opens with a severe review of the 
principles and consequences of the Protestant Eefonna- 
tion: 

“ The rejection of the divine authority of the Church 
to teach, and the subjection of all things belonging to 
religion to the judgment of each individual, have led to 
the production of many sects, and, as these differed and 
disputed with each other, all belief in Christ was over- 
thrown in the minds of not a few, and the Holy Script- 
ures began to be counted as mytlis and fables. Chris- 
tianity has been rejected, and the reign of mere Eeastm 
as they call it, or Nature, substituted; many falling into 
the abyss of pantheism, materialism, and atheism, and, 
repudiating the reasoning nature of man,^nd every rule 
of right and wrong, they are laboring to overthrow the 
very foundations of human society. As this impious 
heresy is spreading everywhere, not a few Catholics 
have been inveigled by it. They have confounded hu 
man science and divine faith. 

“ But the Church, the Mother and Mistress of na- 
tions, is ever ready to strengthen the weak, to take to 
her bosom those that return, and carry them on to better 
things. And, now the bishops of the whole world being 
gathered together in this (Ecumenical Coimeil, and tho 
Holy Ghost sitting therein, and judging with us, wo 
have determined to declare from this chair of St. Peter 
the saving doctrine of Christ, and proscribe and con- 
demn the opposing errors. 

“ Of God, the Ckeatoe of All Things. — The Holy 
Catholic Apostolic Eoman Church belie'^es that there 
is one true and living God, Creator and Lord of Heaven 
and Earth, Almighty, Eternal, Immense, Incompfehen- 
sible. Infinite in understanding and will, and in all pe^ 
faction. He is distinct from the world. Of his own 



846 


CONSTIXUTION OF CATHOLIC FAITH. 


most free counsel he made alike out of nothing two 
created creatures, a spiritual and a temporal, angelic and 
earthly. Afterward he made the human nature, com- 
posed of both. Moreover, God by his providence pro- 
tects and governs all things, reaching from endrto end 
mightily, and ordering all things harmoniously. Every 
thing is open to his eyes, even things that come to pass 
by the free •action of his creatures.” 

“ Of Revelatiok. — The Holy Mother Church holds 
that God can be known with certainty by the natural 
light of human reason, but that it has also pleased him 
to rewaal himself and the eternal decrees of his will in 
a supernatural way. This supernatural revelation, as 
declared by thp Holy Council of Trent, is contained in 
the books of the Old and New Testament, as enumer- 
ated in the decrees of that Council, and as are to be had 
in the old Vulgate Latin edition. These are sacred be- 
cause they were written under the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost. They have God for their author, and as 
such have been delivered to the Church. 

“And, in order to restrain restless spirits, who may 
give erroneous explanations, it is decreed — ^renewing 
the decision of the Council of Trent — ^that no one may 
interpret the sacred Scriptures contrary to the sense in 
which they are interpreted by Holy Mother Church’, to 
whom such interpretation belongs.” 

“ Of Faith. — ^Inasmuch as man depends on God as 
his Lord, and created reason is wholly subject to un- 
created truth,- he is bound when God makes a revelation 
to obey it by* faith. This faith is a supernatural vir- 
trfe, and the 'beginning of man’s salvation who believes 
revealed things to be true, not for their intrinsic truth 
as seen by the natural light of reason, but for the au- 
thority of God in revealing them. But, nevertheless, 



CONSTITUTION OP CATHOLIC FAITH. 


347 


that faith might be agreeable to reason, God willed to 
join miracles and prophecies, which, showing forth his 
bmnipotence and knowledge, are proofs suited to the 
understanding of all. Such we have in Moses and the 
' prophets; and above all in Christ. Now, all those things 
are to be believed which are written in the word of God, 
or handed down by tradition, which the Church by her 
teaching has proposed for belief. 

No one can be justified without this faith, nor shall 
any one, unless he persevere therein to the end, at- 
tain everlasting life. Hence God, through his only-be- 
gotten Son, has established the Church as the guaidian 
and teacher of his revealed word. For only to the 
Catholic Church do all those signs belong ^which make 
evident the credibility of the Christian faith. Nay, 
more, the very Church herself, in view of her wonder- 
ful propagation, her eminent holiness, her exhaustless 
fruitfulness in all that is good, her Catholic unity, her 
unshaken stability, offers a great and evident claim to 
belief, and an undeniable proof of her divine mission. 
Thus the Church shows to her children that the faith 
they hold rests on a most solid foundation. Wherefore, 
totally unlike is the condition of those who, by the 
heavenly gift of faith, have embraced the Catholic truth, 
and of those who, led by human opinions, are following 
a false religion.” 

“ Of Faith and Reason. — ^Moreover, the Catholic 
Church has ever held and now holds that there exists a 
twofold order of knowledge, each of which is distinct 
from the other, both as to its principle and* its object. 
As to its principle, because in the one we know by natu- 
ral reason, in the other by divine faith ; as to the 'ob- 
ject, because, besides those things which our natural rea- 
son can attain, there are proposed to our belief mysteries 



348 


CONSTITUTION OF CATHOLIC FAITH. 


hidden in God, which, unless by him revealed, cannot 
come to our knowledge. 

“ Besson, indeed, enlightened by faith, and seeking* 
with diligence and godly sobriety, may, by God’s gift, 
come to some understanding, limited in decree, but 
most wholesome in its eflEects, of mysteries, both froii 
the analogy of things which are naturally known an( 
from the eoimection of the mysteries themselves witl 
one another and with man’s last end. But never car 
reason be rendered capable of thoroughly understand- 
ing mysteries as it does those truths which form its prop 
er (fcject. For God’s mysteries, in their very nature, 
so far surpass the reach of created intellect, that, even 
when taughf- by revelation and received by faith, they 
remain covered by faith itself, as by a veil, and shroud- 
ed, as it were, in darkness as long as in this mortal life. 

“ But, although faith be above reason, there never can 
be a real disagreement between them, since the same 
God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has given 
man’s soul the light of reason, and God cannot deny 
himself, nor can one truth ever contradict another. 
Wherefore the empty shadow of such contradiction 
arises chiefly from this, that either the doctrines of faith 
are not understood and set forth as the Church really 
holds them, or that the vain devices and opinions of 
men are mistaken for the dictates of reason. We 
therefore pronounce false every assertion which is con- 
trary to the enlightened truth of faith. Moreover, the 
Church, which, together with her apostolic office of 
teaching, is charged also with the guardianship of the 
deposits of faith, holds likewise from God the right 
and the duty to condemn ‘ knowledge, falsely so called,’ 
‘ lest any man be cheated by philosophy and vain deceit.’ 
Hence aU the Christian faithful are not only forbidden 



CONSTITUTION OP CATHOLIC FAITH. 


349 


to defend, as legitimate conclusions of science, those 
.opinions which are known to he contrary to the doctrine 
of faith, especially when condemned by the Church, but 
are rather absolutely bound to hold them for errors 
wearing the deceitful appearance of tnith. 

“ Not only is it impossible for faith and reason ever 
to contradict each other, but they rather afford each 
other mutual assistance. For right reason* Establishes 
the foundation of faith, and, by the aid of its light, 
cultivates the science of divine things; and faith, on 
the other hand, frees and preserves reason from errors, 
and enriches it with knowledge of many kinds. S6 far 
then, is the Church from opposing the culture of hu 
man arts and sciences, that she rather aids and pro 
motes it in many ways. For she is not ignorant of noi 
does she despise the advantages which flow from them 
to the life of man ; on the contrary, she acknowledge? 
that, as they sprang from God, the Lord of knowledge, 
so, if they be rightly pursued, they will, through the 
aid of his grace, lead to God. Nor does she forbid 
any of those sciences the use of its own principles and 
its own method within its own proper sphere ; but, rec- 
ognizing this reasonable freedom, she takes care that 
they may not, by contradicting God’s teaching, fall into 
errors, or, overstepping the due limits, invade or throw 
into confusion the domain of faith. 

“ For the doctrine of faith revealed by God has not 
been proposed, like some philosophical discovery, to be 
made perfect by human ingenuity, but it Kas been de- 
livered to the spouse of Christ as a divine, deposit, to 
be faitlifully guarded and unerringly set forth. Hence, 
all tenets of holy faith are to be explained always ac- 
cording to the sense and meaning of the Church ; nor 
is it ever lawful to depart therefrom under pretense 



350 the VATICAN ANATHEMAS. 

or color of a more enlightened explanation. Therefore 
as generations and centuries roll on, let the understand- 
ing, knowledge, and wisdom of each and every one, of 
individuals and of the whole Church, grow apace and 
increase exceedingly, yet only in its kind ; that is to say, 
retaining pure and inviolate the sense and meaning and 
belief of the same doctrine.” 

Among bther canons the following were promulgated : 

“ Let him be anathema — 

“ Who denies the one true God, Creator and Lord 
of all things, visible and invisible. 

‘*'Who unblushingly affirms that, besides matter 
nothing else exists. 

“ Who says that the substance or essence of God; 
and of all things, is one and the same. 

“Who says that finite things, both corporeal and 
spiritual, or at least spiritual things, are emanations of 
the divine substance; or that the divine essence, by 
manifestation or development of itself, becomes all 
things. 

“ Who does not acknowledge that the world and all 
things which it contains were produced by God out of 
nothing. 

“ Who shall say that man can and ought to, of his 
own efforts, by means of constant progress, arrive, at 
last, at the possession of all truth and goodness. 

“ Who shall refuse to receive, for sacred and canoni- 
cal, the books of Holy Scripture in their integrity, with 
all their p^^^ts, according as they were enumerated by 
the holy Council of Trent, or shall deny that they are 
inspired by God. 

“ Who shall say that human reason is in such wise 
independent, that faith cannot be demanded of it by 
God. 



THE VATICAN ANATHEMAS. 


351 


“Who shall say that divine revelation cannot he ren- 
dored credible by external evidences. 

“Who shall say that no miracles can be wronght, or 
that the^ can never be known with certainly, and that 
the divine origin of Christianity cannot be proved bv 
them. 

“ Who shall say that divine revelation includes nc 
mysteries, but that all the dogmas of faith* Aiay be un« 
derstood and demonstrated by reason duly cultivated. 

“ Who shall say that human sciences ought to be pur- 
sued in such a spirit of freedom that one may be al- 
lowed to hold as true their assertions, even wheh op- 
posed to revealed doctrine. 

“ Who shall say that it may at any time^come to pass, 
in the progress of science, that the doctrines set forth 
by the Church must be taken in another sense than that 
in which the Church has ever received and yet receives 
them.” 

The extraordinary and, indeed, it may be said, arro- 
gant assumptions contained in these decisions were far 
from being received with satisfaction by educated Cath- 
olics. On the part of the German universities there 
was resistance ; and, when, at the close of the year, 
the decrees of the Vatican Council were generally ac- 
quiesced in, it was not through conviction of their 
truth, but through a disciplinary sense of obedience. 

By many of the most pious Catholics the entire 
movement and the results to .which it h^ led were 
looked upon with the sincerest sorrow. P6re Jlyacinthoj 
in a letter to the superior of his order, says : “ I pro- 
test against the divorce, as impious as it is insensate, 
sought to be effected between the Church, which is our 
eternal mother, and the society of the nineteenth cen- 



862 


THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 


tury, of wliicli we are the temporal children, and tow- 
ard which we have also duties and regards. It is my 
most profound conviction that, if France in particular, 
and the Latin race in general, are given up to social, 
moral, and religious anarchy, the principal ciCuse un 
doubtedly is not Catholicism itself, but the manner in 
which Catholicism has for a long time been understood 
and practised.” 

Notwithstanding his infallibility, which implies om- 
niscience, his Holiness did not foresee the issue of the 
Franco-Prussian War. Had the prophetical talent been 
vouchsafed to him, he would have detected the inoppor- 
tuneness of the acts of his Council. His request to the 
King of Pru^ia for military, aid to support his tempo- 
ral power was denied. The excommunicated King of 
Italy, as we have seen, took possession of Home. A 
bitter papal encyclical, strangely contrasting with the 
courteous politeness of modem state-papers, was issued, 
November 1, 18Y0, denouncing the acts of the Pied- 
montese court, “ which had followed the counsel of the 
sects of perdition.” In this his Holiness declares tliat 
he is in captivity, and that he will have no agreement 
with Belial. He pronounces the greater excommunica- 
tion, with censures and penalties, against his antagonists, 
and prays for “ the intercession of the immaculate- Yir- 
gin Mary, mother of God, and that of the blessed apos- 
tles Peter and Paul.” 

Of the various Pi'otestant denominations, several 
^d associated themselves, for the purposes of consultar 
tion, under the designation of the Evangelical Alliance. 
Their last meeting was held in New York, in the au- 
tumn of 1873. Though, in this meeting, were gathered 
together many pious representatives of the Keformed 



THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 353- 

Churclies, European and American, it had not the pres- 
tige nor the authority of the Great Coimcil that had just 
previously closed its sessions in St. Peter’s, at Pome. It 
could not appeal to an unbroken ancestry of far more 
tliftn a thousand years ; it could not speak with tlie au- 
thority of an equal and, indeed, of a superior to emper- 
ors and kings. While profound intelligence and a 
statesmanlike, worldly wisdom gleamed itf bvery thing 
that the Vatican Council had done, the Evangelical Alli- 
ance met without a clear and precise view of its objects, 
without any definitely-marked intentions. Its wish was 
to draw into closer union the various Protestant Church- 
es, but it had no well-grounded hope of accomplishing 
that desirable result. It illustrated the nacessaiy work- 
ing of the principle on which those Churches originated. 
They were founded on dissent and exist by separation. 

Yet in the action of the Evangelical Alliance may 
be discerned certain very impressive facts. It averted 
its eyes from its ancient antagonist — that antagonist 
which had so recently loaded the Reformation with 
contumely and denunciation — it fastened them, as the 
Vatican Council had done, on Science. Under that 
dreaded name there stood before it wliat seemed to bo 
a spectre of uncertain form, of hourly-dilating propoi’- 
tionh, of threatening aspect. Sometimes the Alliance 
addressed this stupendous apparition in words of cour- 
tesy, sometimes in tones of denunciation. 

The Alliance failed to perceive that modern Science 
is the legitimate sister — indeed, it is the twin-sister 
of the Reformation. They were begotten together and 
were born together. It failed to perceive that, though 
there is an impossibility of bringing into coalition the 
many conflicting sects, they may all find in science a 
point of connection \ and that, not a distrustful attitude 



354 the VATICAN CONSTITCTION CRITICISED. 

toward it, but a cordial union with it, is their true 
policy. 

It remains now to offer some reflections on the 
“Constitution of the Catholic Faith,” as deflned*by the 
Vatican Council. 

For objects to present themselves under identical re- 
lations to different persons, they must be seen from the 
same point of view. In the instance we are now con- 
sidering, the religious man has his own especial station ; 
the sdentifle man another, a very different one. It is 
not f<flr either to demand that his coobserver shall admit 
that the panorama of facts spread before them is actu- 
ally such as it:appears to him to be. 

The Dogmatic Constitution insists on the admission 
of this postulate, that the Eoman Church acts under a 
divine commission, specially and exclusively delivered 
to it. In virtue of that great authority, it requires of 
all men the surrender of their intellectual convictions, 
and of all nations the subordination of their civil power. 

But a claim so imposing must be substantiated by 
the most decisive and unimpeachable credentials ; proofs, 
not only of an implied and indirect kind, but clear, em- 
phatic, and to the point ; proofs that it would be impos- 
sible to call in question. * 

The Church, however, declares, that she will not 
submit her claim to the arbitrament of human reason ; 
she demands that it shall be at once conceded as an 
article of faith. 

i 

If this be admitted, all her requirements must neces- 
sarily be assented to, no matter how exorbitant they 
maybe. 

With strange inconsistency the Dogmatic Constito- 
iion deprecates reason, affirming that it cannot deter- 



THE VATICAN CONSTITUTION CRITICISED. 355 

mine the points under consideration, and yet submits to 
it arguments for adjudication. In truth, it might bo 
said that the whole composition is a passionate plea to 
Beason to stultify itself in favor of Eoman Christianity 

With points of view so widely asunder, it is impos- 
sible that Beligion and Science should accord in their 
representation of things. Nor can any conclusion in 
common be reached, except by an appeal td Beason as a 
supreme and final judge. 

There are many religions in the world, some of them 
of more venerable antiquity, some having far more nu- 
merous adherents, than the Boman. How can a'selec- 
tion be made among them, except by such an appeal to 
Beason ? Beligion and Science must both submit their 
claims and their dissensions to its arbitrament. 

Against this the Vatican Council protests. It exalts 
faith to a superiority over reason ; it says tnat they con- 
stitute two sepaiute orders of knowledge, having respec- 
tively for their objects mysteries and facts. Faith deals 
with mysteries, reason with facts. Asserting the domi- 
nating superiority of faith, it tries to satisfy the reluc- 
tant mind with miracles and prophecies. 

On the other hand, Science turns away from the 
incomprehensible, and rests herself on the maxim of 
Wiclif : “ God forceth not a man to believe that which 
he cannot understand.” In the absence of an exhibi- 
tion of satisfactory credentials on the part of her oppo- 
nent, she considers whether there be in the history of 
the papacy, and in the biography of the| popes, any 
thing that can adequately sustain a divine opiumissionj 
any thing that can justify pontifical infallibility, or ex- 
tort that unhesitating ob^ience which is due to the 
vice-Qod. 

One of tho most striking and yet contradictoiy feat- 

A A 2 



350 TBE VATICAN CONSTITUTION CRITICISED. 

urcs of the Dogmatic Constitution is, the reluctant hom- 
age it pays to the intelligence of man. It presents a 
definition of the philosophical basis of Catholicism, but 
it veils from view the repulsive features of the vulgar 
faith. It sets forth the attributes of God, the Creator 
of all things/ in words fitly designating its sublime con- 
ception, but it abstains from affirming that this most 
awful and eternal Being was bom of an earthly mother, 
the wife of a Jewish cai’penter, who has since become 
the queen of heaven. The God it depicts is not the 
God of the middle ages, seated on his golden throne, 
surroiinded by choirs of angels, but the God of Philoso- 
phy. The Constitution has nothing to say about the 
Trinity, nothmg of the worship due to the Virgin — on 
the contrary, that is by implication sternly condemned ; 
nothing about transubstantiation, or the making of the 
flesh and blood of God by the priest ; nothing of the 
invocation of the saints. It bears on its face subordi- 
nation to the thought of the age, the impress of the in- 
tellectual progress of man. 

Such being the exposition rendered to us respecting 
the attributes of God, it next instracts us as to his mode 
of government of the world. The Church asserts that 
she possesses a supernatural control over all material 
and moral events. The priesthood, in its various gr^es, 
can determine issues of the future, either by the exercise 
of its inherent attributes, or by its influential invoca- 
tion of the celestial powers. To the sovereign pontifE 
it has been ^ven to bind or loose at his pleasure. It is 
unlawful to appeal from his judgments to an (Ecumeni- 
cal Council, as if to an earthly arbiter superior to him. 
Powers such as these are consistent witb arbitrary rule, 
but they are inconsistent with the government of the 
world by immutable law. Hence the Dogmatic Consti- 



THE PASSAGE OP EUROPE TO LLAMAISM. 357 

tution plants itself firmly in behalf of incessant provi- 
dential interventions ; it will not for a moment admit 
that in natural things there is an irresistible sequence 
of events, or in the affairs of men an unavoidable course 
of acts. 

But has not the order of civilization in all parts of 
the world been the same? Does not the, growth of so- 
ciety resemble individual growth-? Do not both exhibit 
to us phases of youth, of maturity, of decrepitude? To 
a person who has carefully considered the progressiye 
civilization of groups of men in regions of the et^rth fai 
apart, who has observed the identical forms under which 
that advancing civilization has manifested itself, is it 
not clear that the procedure is determined by law? 
The religious ideas of the Incas of Peru and the em- 
perors of Mexico, and the ceremonials of their court-life, 
were the ^ame as those in Europe— the same as those in 
Asia. The current of thought Lad been the same. A 
swarm of bees carried to some distant land will build 
its combs and regulate its social institutions as other 
unknown swarms would do, and so with separated and 
disconnected swarms of men. So invariable is this se- 
quence of thought and act, that there are philosophers 
who, transferring the past example offered by Asiatic 
history to the case of Europe, would not hesitate to 
sustain the proposition — ^given a bishop of Eome and 
some centuries, and you will have an infallible pope : 
given an infallible pope and a little more time, and you 
will have Llamaism — ^Llamaito to which ♦Asia has long 
ago attained. 

As to the origin of corporeal and spiritual things, 
the Dogmatic Constitution adds a solemn emphasis to its 
declarations, by anathematizing all those who hold the 
doctrine of emanation, or who believe that visible Nature 



858 the VATICAN CONSTITUTION CRITICISED. 


is only a manifestation of the Divine Essence. In this 
its authoi's had a task of no ordinary difficulty before 
them. They must encounter those formidable ideas, 
whether old or new, which in our times are so strongly 
forcing themselves on thoughtful men. The doctrine 
of the conservation and correlation of Force yields as its 
logical issue, the time-worn Oriental emanation theory ; 
the doctrines of Evolution and Development strike at 
that of successive creative acts. The former rests on 
the fundamental principle that the quantity of force in 
the universe is invariable. Though that quantity can 
neither he increased nor diminished, the forms under 
which Force expresses itself may he transmuted into 
each other. As yet this doctrine has not received com- 
plete scientific demonstration, but so numerous and so 
cogent are the arguments adduced in its behalf, that it 
stands in an imposing, almost in an authoritative atti- 
tude. Now, the Asiatic theory of emanation and ah- 
soiption is seen to be in harmony with this grand idea. 
It does not hold that, at the conception of a human be- 
ing, a soul is created by God out of nothing and given 
to it, but that a portion of the already existing, the 
divine, the universal intelligence, is imparted, and, when 
life is over, this returns to and is absorbed in the gen- 
eral source from which it originally came. The authors 
of the Constitution forbid these ideas to be held, under 
pain of eternal punishment. 

In like manner they dispose of the doctrines of 
Evolution add Development, bluntly insisting that the 
Church believes in distinct creative acts. The doctrine 
that 'every living form is derived from some pi*eced- 
ing form is scientifically in a much more advanced po- 
sition than that concerning Force, and probably may 
be considered as established, whatever may become of 



THE VATICAN CONSTITUTION CRITICISED. G50 

the additions with which it has recently been over 
laid. 

In her condemnation of the Kef ormation, the Church 
carries, into effect her ideas of the subordination of 
reason to faith. In her eyes the Reformation is an im- 
pious heresy, leading to the abyss of pantheism, materi- 
alism, and atheism, and tending to overthrow the very 
foundations of human society. .She therefore would 
restrain those “restless spirits” who, following Luther, 
have upheld the “ right of every man to interpret the 
Scriptures for himself.” She asserts that it is a wicked 
error to admit Protestants to equal political privileges 
with Catholics, and that to coerce them and suppress 
tlipin is a sacred duty ; that it is abominable to pennit 
them to establish educational institutions. Gregory 
XVI. denounced freedom of conscience as an insane 
folly, and the freedom of the press a pestilent error, 
which cannot be sufficiently detested. 

But how is it possible to recogjxize an inspired and 
infallible oracle on the Tiber, when it is remembered 
that again and again successive popes have contradicted 
each other ; that popes hav'c denounced councils, and 
councils have denounced popes ; that tlic Bible of feixtus 
V. Ji8d so many admitted eri’ors — nearly two thousand 
— ^that its own authors had to recall it? How is it pos- 
sible for the children of the Church to regard as de- 
lusive errors ” the globular form of tlie earth, her posi- 
tion as a planet in the solar system, her rotation on hei 
axis, her movement round the sun ? How oan they deny 
that there are antipodes, and other worlds* than ours.? 
How can they believe that the world -was made c»it of 
nothing, completed in a week, finished just as we see it 
now; that it has undergone no change, but that its 
parts have worked so indifferently as to require incessant 
interventions ? 



'560 


THE ERRORS OF EOCLESIASTICISM. 


Wlien Science is thus commanded to surrender her 
intellectual convictions, may she not ask the ecclesiastic ( 
to remember the past ? The contest respecting the figure 
of the earth, and the location of heaven and hell, ended 
adversely to him. He affirmed that the earth is an ex- 
tended plane, and that the sky is a fiimament, the fioor 
of heaven, ,t]^rough which again and again persons have 
been seen to ascend. “ The globular form demonstrated 
beyond any possibility of contradiction by astronomical 
facts, and by the voyage of Magellan's ship, he then 
maintained that it is the central body of the universe, 
all others being in subordination to it, and it the grand 
object of God’s regard. Forced from this position, he 
next affirmed that it is motionless, the sun and the stars 
actually revolving, as they apparently do, around it. 
The invention of the telescope proved that here again 
he was in error. Then he maintained that all the mo- 
tions of the solar system are regulated by providential 
intervention ; the ^^Principia” of Newton demonstrated 
that they are due to irresistible law. He then affirmed 
that the earth and all the celestial bodies were created 
about six thousand years ago, and that in six days the 
order of Nature was settled, and plants and animals in 
tlieir various tribes introduced. Constrained by the ac- 
cmnulating mass of adverse evidence, he enlarged his 
days into periods of indefinite length — only, however, 
to find that even this device was inadequate. The six 
ages, with their six special creations, could no longer be 
maintained, ‘when it was* discovered that species, slowly 
emerged iri one age, reached a culmination in a second, 
and gradually died out in a third : this overlapping from 
age to age would not only have demanded creations, but 
re-creations also. He affirmed that there had been a 
deluge, which covered the whole earth above the tops 



THE ERRORS OP EOCLESIASTICISM. 


361 


of the highest moimtains, and that the waters of this 
flood were removed by a wind. Correct ideas respect- 
ing the dimensions of the atmosphere, and of the sea, 
and o^the operation of evaporation, proved how unten- 
able these statements are. Of the progenitors of the 
human race, he declared that they had come from their 
Maker’s hand perfect, both in body and mind, and had 
subsequently experienced a fall.^ He is how consider- 
ing how best to dispose of the evidence continually ac- 
cumulating respecting the savage condition of prehis- 
toric man. 

Is it at all surprising that the number of tlufse who 
hold the opinions of the Church in light esteem should 
so rapidly increase ? How can that be received as a 
trustworthy guide in the invisible, which falls into so 
many errors in the visible ? How can that give confi- 
dence in the moral, the spiritual, which has so signally 
failed in the physical ? It is. not possible to dispose of 
these conflicting facts as empty shadows,” vain de- 
vices,” fictions coming from knowledge falsely so 
called,” errors wearing the deceitful appearance of 
truth,” as the Church stigmatizes them. On the con- 
trary, they are stem witnesses, bearing emphatic and 
ui^mpeachable testimony against the ecclesiastical claim 
to infallibility, and fastening a conviction of ignorance 
and blindness upon her. 

Convicted of so many errors, the papacy makes no 
attempt at explanation. It ignores the whole matter. 
Nay, more, relying on the efficacy of audacity, though 
confronted by these facts, it lays claim to uifallibilitj\ 

But, to the pontiff, no other rights can be copcede'J 
than those he can establish at the bar of Reason. He 
cannot claim infallibility in religious affairs, and decline 
it in scientific. Infallibility embraces all things. It 



362 SEPARATION OP OATHOLIOISM AND CIVILIZATION. 


implies omniscience. If it holds good for theology, it 
necessaiily holds good for science. How is it possible 
to coordinate the infallibility of the papacy with the 
well-known errors into which it has fallen ? 

Does it not, then, become needful to reject the claim 
of the papacy to the employment of coercion in the main- 
tenance of its opinions ; to repudiate utterly the declara- 
tion that “ the Inquisition is an urgent necessity in view 
of the imbelief of the present age,” and in the name of 
human nature to protest loudly against the ferocity and 
terrorism of that institution ? Has not conscience in- 
alienable rights ^ 

An impassable and hourly-widening gulf intervenes 
between Catholicism and the spirit of the age. Catholi- 
cism insists that blind faith is superior to reason ; that 
mysteries are of more importance than facts. She claims 
to be the sole inteipreter of Nature and revelation, the 
supreme arbiter of knowledge ; she summarily rejects 
all modem criticism of the Scriptures, and orders the 
Bible to be accepted in accordance with the views of the 
theologians of Trent ; she openly avows her hatred of 
free institutions and constitutional systems, and declares 
that those are in damnable error who regard the recon- 
ciliation of the pope with modem civilization as either 
possible or desirable. 

But the spirit of the age demands — is the human 
intellect to be subordinated to the Tridentine Fathers, 
or to the fancy of illiterate and uncritical persons who 
wrote in the., earlier ages of the Church ? It sees no 
pjerit in blind faith, but rather distmsts it. It looks 
forward to an improvement in the popular canon of 
cmdibility for a decision between fact and fiction. It 
does not consider itself bound "to believe fables and 
falsehoods that have been invented for ecclesiastical 



SCraNCE AND PROTESTANTISM. 


363 


ends. It finds no argument in behalf of their truth, 
that traditions and legends have been long-lived; in 
this respect, those of the Church are greatly inferior 
to the fables of paganism. The longevity of the Church 
itself is not due to divine protection or intervention, but 
to the skill with which it has adapted its policy to exist- 
ing circumstances. If antiquity be the criterion of au- 
thenticity, the claims of Buddhism must be' respected 
it has the superior warrant of many centuries. There 
can be no defense of those deliberate falsifications of 
history, that concealment of historical facts, of which 
the Church has so often taken advantage. In’these 
things the end does not justify the means. 

Then has it in truth come to this, that'Eoman Chris- 
tianity and Science are recognized by their respective 
adherents as being absolutely incompatible ; they can- 
not exist together ; one must yield to the other ; man- 
kind must make its choice— it cannot have both. 

While such is, perhaps, the issue as regards Catholi- 
cism, a reconciliation of the Eeformation with Science 
is not only possible, but would easily take place, if the 
Protestant Churches would only live up to the maxim 
taught by Luthei’, and established by so many years of 
war. That maxim is, the right of private interpreta- 
tion of the Scriptures. It was the foundation of intel- 
lectual liberty. But, if a personal interpretation of the 
book of Eevelation is permissible, how can it be denied 
in the case of the book of Nature? In the misunder- 
standings that have taken place, we must ^ver bear in 
mind the infimities of men. The generations that iiq^ 
mediately followed the Eeformation may perhaps be 
excused for not comprehending the full significance of 
their cardinal principle, and for not on all occasions car- 
rying it into effect. ^fV^hen Calvin caused Servetus to 



664 : 


SCIENCE AND FAITH. 


be burnt, be was animated, not by the principles of the 
Boformation, but by those of Catholicism, from which 
he had not been able to emancipate himself completely. 
And when the clergy of influential Protestant confes- 
sions have stigmatized the investigators of Nature as 
infidels and atheists, the same may be said. For Catholi- 
cism to reconcile itself to Science, there are formidable, 
perhaps irifehperable pbstacles in the way. For Protes- 
tantism to achieve that great result there are not. In 
the one case there is a bitter, a mortal animosity to be 
overcome ; in the other, a friendship, that misunderstand- 
ings have alienated, to be restored. 

But, whatever may be the preparatory incidents of 
that great impending intellectual crisis which Christen- 
<lom must soon inevitably witness, of this we may rest 
jissured, that the silent secession from the public faith, 
which in so ominous a manner characterizes the pres- 
ent generation, will find at length political expression. 
It is not without significance that France reenforces the 
iiltramontane tendencies of her lower population, by the 
promotion of pilgrimages, the perpetration of miracles, 
the exhibition of celestial apparitions. Constrained to 
do this by her destiny, she does it with a blush. It is 
not without significance that Germany resolves to rid 
herself of the incubus of a dual government, by the 
exclusion of the Italian element, and to cariy to its 
completion that Keformation which three centuries ago 
she left unfinished. The time approaches when men 
jnust take choice between quiescent, immobile faith 
and ever-advancing Science — ^faith, with its mediaeval 
consolations. Science, which is incessantly scattering its 
material blessings in the pathway of life, elevating the 
lot of man in this world, and unifying the human race. 



CTVILIZATION AND RELIGION. 


365 


Its triumphs are solid and enduring. But the gloiy 
■which Catholicism might gain from a conflict with ma- 
terial ideas is at the best only like that of other celestial 
meteors when they touch the atmosphere of the earth 
—transitory and useless. 

Though Guizot’s afilrmation that the Church has 
always sided with despotism is only too true, it must 
be remembered that in the policy she follows there 
is much of political necessity. Slle is urged on by the 
pressure of nineteen centuries. But, if the irresistible 
indicates itself in her action, the inevitable manifests 
itself in her life. For it is with the papacy as with a 
man. It has passed through the struggles of infancy, 
it has displayed the energies of maturity^ and, its work 
completed, it must sink into the feebleness and queni- 
lousness of old age. Its youth can never be renewed. 
The influence of its souvenirs alone will remain. As 
pagan Rome threw her departing shadow over the em- 
pire and tinctured all its thoughts, so Christian Rome 
casts her parting shadow over Europe. 

"Will modern civilization consent to abandon the 
career of advancement which has given it so much power 
and happiness ? 'Will it consent to retrace its steps to the 
semi-barbarian ignorance and superstition of the middle 
ageS ? Will it submit to the dictation of a power, which, 
claiming divine authority, can present no adequate cre- 
dentials of its oflSce; a power which kept Europe m a 
stagnant condition for many centuries, ferociously sup- 
pressing by the stake and the sword every attempt at 
progress a power that is founded in a cWu o mys 
ries ; that sets itself above reason and corhraon-seiise ,- 
that loudly proclaims the hatred it entertains against 
liberty of thought and freedom in civil institutions ; that 
professes its intention of repressing the one and destroy- 



366 INADMISSIBLE CLAIMS OF CATHOLICISM. 


ing the other whenever it can find the opportunity ; that 
denounces as most pernicious and insane the opinion 
that liberty of conscience and of worship is the right of 
every man ; that protests against that right being pro- 
claimed and asserted by law in every well-governed 
state ; that contemptuously repudiates the principle that 
the will of the people, manifested by public opinion (as 
it is called)-Qr by other means, shall constitute law ; that 
refuses to every man ‘any title to opinion in matters of 
religion, but holds that it is simply his duty to believe 
what he is told by the Church, and to obey her com- 
mande ; that will not permit any temporal government 
to define the rights and prescribe limits to the authority 
of the Churcl^; that declares it not only may but will 
resort to force to discipline disobedient individuals ; that 
invades the sanctity of private life, by making, at the 
confessional, the wife and daughters and servants of one 
suspected, spies and informei's against him ; that tries 
him without an accuser, and by torture makes him bear 
witness against himself ; that denies the right of parents 
to educate their children outside of its own Church, and 
insists that to it alone belongs the supervision of domes- 
tic life and the control of marriages and divorces ; that 
denoimces “the impudence” of those who presume to 
subordinate the authority of the Church to the civil' au- 
thority, or who advocate the separation of the Church 
from the state ; that absolutely repudiates aU toleration, 
and affirms that the Catholic religion is entitled to be 
held as the only religion in every country, to the exclu- 
sion of all other modes of worship ; that requires all laws 
ibcanding in the way of its interests to be repealed, 
and, If that be refused, orders all its followers to disobey 
them? 

This power, conscious that it can work no miracle to 



ISSUE OF THE CONFLICT. 


367 


serve itself, does not hesitate to disturb society by its 
intrigues against governments, and seeks to accomplish 
its ends by alliances with despotism. 

Claims such as these mean a revolt against modern 
civilization, an intention of destroying it, no matter at 
what social cost. To submit to them without resistance, 
men must be slaves indeed ! 

As to the issue of the coming conflict, .can any one 
doubt ? Whatever is resting on fiction and fraud will 
be overthrown. Institutions that organize impostures 
and spread delusions must show what right they have 
to exist. Faith must render an account of herself to 
Eeason. Mysteries must give place to facts. Eeligiou 
must relinquish that imperious, that donjineering posi- 
tion which she has so long maintained against Science. 
There must be absolute freedom for thought. The eccle- 
siastic must learn to keep himself within the domain he 
has chosen, and cease to tyrannize over the philosopher, 
who, conscious of his own strength and the purity of 
his motives, will bear such interference no longer. 
What was written by Esdras near the willow-fringed 
rivers of Babylon, more than twenty-three centuries 
ago, still holds good : “ As for Truth it endureth and is 
always strong ; it liveth and conquereth for evermore.” 



INDEX 


■’A. 

Absorption, doctrine of, 122. 

Abubeker invades Syria, 81 

Active intellect, 138. 

iEneas Sylvius’s description of the 
Britiih Isles, 265. 

Agesilaus, his expedition, 5. 
Alexander invades Persia, 6; death 
of, 16. 

Alexandria, foundJtion of, 17 ; Mu- 
seum, 18 ; library, 19 ; captured 
by Amrou, 94. 

Al-Gazzali, quotation from, 101 ; on 
the soul, 127. 

Algebra invented by the Saracens, 
112, 115, 804. 

Alhazen, 117. 

, Alliance, Evangelical, 352. 

Almagest, 112. 

Al-Mamun measures the earth, 109, 
155 ; his libraries, 112 ; quotation 
from, 115 ; denounced, 142 ; 
translates the “Syntaxis,” 168. 

Almansor at Bagdad, 111. 

Amenca, discovery of, 169 ; its 
progress, 286. 

American Revolution, 324. 

Amrou invades Egypt, 93 ; consults 
the khalif about the Alexandrian 
Library, 102. 

Anaesthetics, 318. 

Anathema, Nice^c, 63 ; of the Vati- 
can Council, 8^60. 

Andalusia, conquest of, 96 ; civili- 

« lotion of, Ui. 

Animals, are they automata ? 128- 
186V 

Antipodes, St. Augustine on the, 64. 

Apollonius, his mathematical works, 
29 ; water-clock of, 31. 


Aquinas, St. Thomas, resists Averro- 
ism, 160. 

Arabs, their fatalism, 106 ; litera- 
ture, 111 ; manufacture and agri- 
culture, 117 ; inventions and dis- 
coveries, 158. 

Arbela, battle of, 6. 

Archimedes, 28. 

Argyll, Duke of, quotation from, 
223. 

Aristarchus, 156. 

Arithmetic, Indian, 115. 

Aristotelian philosophy, 22. 

Arius,^ 51 ; councils respecting, 205. 

Assyrian printing, 14. 

Astronomy, Arabian, 116 ; periods 
of progress, 232. 

Atmospheric refraction, 117, 158. 

Augustine denounces Pelagius, 66 ; 
review of his writings ; 68-62 ; 
on antipodes, 64. 

Auricular confession, 207. 

Averroism, 124, 189 ; in Andalusia, 
142 ; opposed by the Dominicans, 
143 ; in Europe, 149 ; in Italy, 
160, 210. 

B. 

Babylon, 10. 

Babylonian astronomy, 13. 

Bacon, Lord, 233. 

Bagdad a centre of science. 111. 

Bahira converts Mohammed, 78. 

Bartholomew’s eve, 214. 

Bede, Venerable, quotation from 
the, 66. 

Bozrah, fall of, 88. 

Bradley discovers aberration of the 
stars, 172. 

Bruno, 177 ; is murdered, 180. 



INDEX. 369 


Buddhism, doctrine as to the soul, 
122 ; nature of, 1S8. 


0 . 

Caaba, 86# 

Cajetan to Luther, 211. 

Callisthencs, death of, 10. 

Calvin, 218 ; bums Servetus, 216 ; 
on predestination, 262. 

Catholicity, the failure of, 285, 321. 

Cape, the, doubling of, 163, 294. 

Cardinals, college of, 276. 

Carthage burned by the Saracens, 
96 ; had introduced Latin Chris- 
tianity, 96. 

Cassini discovers the oblateness of 
Jupiter, 188. 

Censorship, 293. 

Chain of Destiny, 108. 

Chakia Mouni, 138. 

Chaldean Church established, 73 ; 
observations, 13. 

Chemistry, origin of, 112-116. 

Chosrocs invades the Roman Em- 
pire, 76 ; captures Jerusalem, 76 ; 
carries off the cross, 77. 

Christianity, origin of, 34 ; pagan- 
ization, 46 ; transformed into a 
political system, 62. 

Chronology, vulgai*, 184 ; patristic, 
184. 

Chronometer, 312. 

Church, Catholic, its numbers, 328 ; 
its pretensions ; 329 ; appanage 
of Italy, 841 ; its claims, 366. 

CircuKmavigation of the earth, 163. 

Civilization and Catholicity, 282. 

Clay libraries, 13. 

Clementine Constitutions, 211. 

Colenso on the Pentateuch, 219. 

Coliseum, 266. 

Colleges, Arabian, 214. 

Columbus, voyage of, 169 ; discov- 
ers the line of no variation, 162. 

Confusion of tongues, 186. 

Conservation of force, 368. 

Constantino becomes emperor, 39 ; 
his gift to the pope, 272, 

Constitution, dogmatic, of Catholic 
faith, 344, 364. 

Cooling of the earthy 246. 


Copernicus, 167 ; hU system cstab- 
IL-^hed, 172. 

Cosmas Indicopleustes, 64, 154. 
Cosmogony, scientific, 188. 

Councils determine truth, 204 ; in- 
falUble, 226. 

Creation and evolution, 192. 

Crisis, impending, 327. 

Criterion of truth, 201. 

Crown of thorns, 270. 

Ctesibius invents the fire-engine, 31. 
Curia, its business, 2^4. 

Cyril nlhrders Hypatia, 66 ; bribes 
the eunuch, 72. 


D. 

Damascus, fall of, 76, 89. 

Death, introduction of, into the 
world, 66. 

Decretals, Isidoritlh, 271. 

De Domini s, punishment of, 319. 

De Gama, 163, 294. 

Degree, measure of a, 165, 236. 

D’Elcano, Sebastian, completes cir- 
cumnavigation, 164. 

Deluge, its date, IS."). 

Descartes on automata, 128-130; 
his geometry, 305. 

“De Tribus Impostoribus,” 148. 

Development theory, 118, 248. 

Diocletian opposes Christianity, 38 ; 
abdication of, 39. 

Dionysius Exiguus constructs chro- 
nology, 184. 

Dogmatic constitution of Catholic 
faith, 344, 354. 

Domestic improvements, 311-316. 

Dual government, 266, 342. 

Dualism, 16. 

Du Bois-Reymond on the ant, 129, 

E. 

Earth, its form, 108 ; measured by 
Al-Mamun, 109 ; theological view 
of, 153; measures of, 166, 166; 
circumnavigation of, 164 ; Meas- 
ured by the French, 166 ; dimen- 
sions of, 167, 174 ; distance from 
the sun, 173 ; age of, 182 ; oblate- 
ness of, 189 ; formation of, 189 ; 


35 15 



INDEX. 


^70 

antiquity of, 194 ; decline of her 
heat, 244. 

East, the, peculiarities of its reli- 
gious opinions, 69. 

Ecclesiastic, the, recommended €o 
remember the past, 860. 

Edessa, college of, 78. 

Electric telegraph, 811. 

Emanation, doctrine of, 122, 358. 

Encyclical Letter, 852. 

Encyclopaedias, Arabian, 114. 

England, popdlcCtion of, 262. 

Ephesus, Council of, 72. ^ 

Epiphanius on mineralogy, 214. 

Eratosthenes, his works, 28 ; meas- 
ures the earth, 165. 

Erigena, his philosophy, 126. 

Euclidf'27. 

Europe, its social condition, 264, 
268, 270 ; at the Reformation, 
265 ; dual government in, 266 ; 
population, 264, 827 ; sects of, 
328. 

Evangelical Alliance, 852. 

Everlasting gospel, 148, 206. 

Evolution, doctrine of, 247. 

Eymeric, the inquisitor, 208. 

Ezra, author of the Pentateuch, 
222 ; quotation from, 867. 


F. 

Fathers of the Church, their char- 
acter, 188. 

Fatalism of Arabs, 106. 

Faustus, his appeal to Augustine, 
48. 

Femel measures the earth, 166. 

Force, its indestructibility, 1 26. 

Fratricelli, their opinion, 284. 

Frauenhofer on spectra, 241. 

Frederick II., his “Sicilian Ques- 
tions,” 161. 

“ Free Spirit,” 'Brethren and Sisters 
of the, 209. ‘ 

French Revol^ition, 824. 


G. 

Galileo, discoveries of, 170; pun- 
ishment, 171 ; mechanics, 288. 
Genesis the baris of Christianity, 


57 ; Augustine’s interpretation of, 
59 ; criticism on, 219. * 

Geometry improved by the Sara- 
cens, 112. 

Government of the world by law, 
229. 

Granada, surrender of, l4)3. 

Gratian’s “Decretum,” 211, 273. 

Gravitation, universal, 235. 

Guizot, his affirmation, 865. 

H. 

Hakem, his library, 142. 

Halley’s comet, 269, 320. 

Hallucinations, reli^ous cause of 
82. 

Haroun - al - Raschid organizes 
schools, 111. 

Heaven, description of, 70 ; the 
Mohammedan’s, 109. 

Helena paganizes Christianity, 47. 

Heraclius, his expedition to Con- 
stantinople, 76 ; war with Chos- 
roes, 76 ; farewell to S3rria, 91. 

Hero invents the steam-engine, 82. 

Herschel on double stars, 238 ; on 
the nebular hypothesis, 240. 

Hilary of Poictiers, quotation from, 
208. 

Hipparchus, 29. 

Holy Ghost, finger of the, 270. 

Honian the bookseller, 118. 

Huber on insects, 129. 

Huggins on nebula, 241. 

Humboldt on effect of Nature, 12. 

Hupfeld on the Pentateuch, 

Hyacinthc, P^re, his views, 851. 

Hypatia, murder of, 56. 

I. 

Ibn-Junis, 116, 169. 

Incas, religious ideas of the, 867. 

Index Expurgatorius, 217. 

Indian arithmetic, 116. 

Individualism. 296. 

Indulgences, 212. 

Infallibility, 226. 

Inoculation, 218. 

Inquisition, 144, 207, 279 ; an ur- 
gent necessity, 862 



INDEX. 


371 


Insects, 129. 

Insurance, 317. 

Intenrention and law, 262. 

Inventions, scientific, 811. 

Isis, worship of, restored 48, 71. 

J. 

Jerusalem surrenders to Alexander, 
7 ; to Chosroes, 76 ; to the Sara- 
cens, 90, 91. 

Jews, their conversion ceases, 105 ; 
infiuence on the Saracens, 106; 
their psychology, 124 ; in Spain, 
144 ; banished from Spain, 147. 

Jesuiabbas treats with Mohammed, 
106. 

Jesuits in Prussia, 840. 

John the Grammarian, 106. 

Jugglery, 319. 

Justiman closes pagan schools, 66 ; 
Pandects of, 210 ; effect of his 
Italian wars, 262. 

K. 

Kepler, laws of, 280 ; condemnation 
of, 231 ; anticipates Newton, 282. 

Ehaied, the Saracen general, 87. 

Khalifates, the three, 99. 

Koran, the God of the, 84. 

L. 

Lactantius, quotation from, 64. 

Lambeth Articles, 263. 

Language, the primitive, 186. 

Lan^ages, modem, 281. 

Laplace on nebular hypothesis, 
239. 

Latin Christianity, its effect, 255 ; 
language, use of, 280. 

Law, government of the world by, 
229. 

Legates, their duty, 273. 

Leibnitz, accusation against New- 
ton, 218. 

Library, Alexandrian, 19 ; disper- 
sion of the, 64 ; destruction of, 
103 ; of Cairo, 113 ; Andalusian, 
113. 

Llamaism, 367. 

Llorente, on the Inquisition, 146. 


Locomotion, 312. 

Logarithms, invention of, 306. 

Lufiier, 212, 295 ; against Aristotle, 
216. 

M. 

Macedonian campaign, 7. 

Magellan, his voyage, 1C4, 294. 

Magianism, 15; overthrown by Mo- 
hammed, 92. 

Maimonides, 143. , , 

Man, qptiquity of, 195 ; develop- 
ment of, 249. 

Martel, Charles, overthrows the Sar- 
acens, 97. 

Mathematics, 303. 

Maurice, the Emperor, 74. 

Medical colleges, Saracen, 115 ; im- 
provements, 318. 

Memory, explanation of, 134. 

Menu, Institutes *f, 122. 

Mercantile inventions, 317. 

Mexico, diminution of population^ 
262 ; civilization of, 289. 

Miracle-evidence, 66, 206. 

Mississippi, advance of the, 190. 

Moawyah, the Khalif, 110. 

Mohammed, at Bozrah, 78 ; his 
marriage, 80 ; battles, 82 ; death, 
83 ; religious opinions of, 84. 

Mohammedanism an offshoot of 
Nestorianism, 85 ; popular doc- 
trines of, 86, 101. 

Monotheism, tendency to, 35 ; ori- 
gin of, 70. 

Moors expelled from Spain, 148. 

Mosaic record, objections to the, 
196. 

Municipal improvements, 315, 

Museum, Alexandrian, 18, 20, 83. 

N. 

Nebular hypothesis* 239-213. 

Ne^ro slavery, 288.‘* 

Neptune, discovery of, 237. 

Nervous system, functions of, 131. 

Nestor, 61 ; follows the opjniona 
of Theodore of Mopsuestia, 71 ; 
quarrels with Cyril, 72 ; trial of, 
72 ; death of, 73. 

Nestorians are Aristotelians, 73 ; 



872 


INDEX. 


Mohammedanism their offshoot, 
85; influence on the Saracens, 
106. 

Newton, Bishop, quotation from, 50. 

Newton, Sir L, discovers the earth’s 
oblateness, 189 ; liis “ Priiicipia,” 
236, 237 ; example from his phi- 
losophy, 301. 

Nicea, Council of, 61, 6o, 204. 

Nirwana, 122, 140. 

Noah divides the earth, 186. 

• • 

O. 

Observatory at Seville, 116. 

Omar, Jerusalem surrendered to, 
90 ; at Medina, 110. 

Organfi^ms, their variation, 246. 

P. 

Pandects of Justinian, 210. 

Papacy the, it^ transformation, 
271 ; centralization of the, 273 ; 
Italian, 341. 

I'apal revenues, 267, 276. 

Paper, invention of, 294. 

Parallax of the sun, 174; of the 
stars, 175. 

Patriarchs, their length of life, 187. 

Patristic philosophy, 63 ; chronolo- 
gy, 185. 

Pelagius, his doctrine and condem- 
nation, 60. 

Pelayo, Bishop, his statement, 276. 

Pendulum invented, 116. 

Pentateuch, Tertullian on the, 40 ; 
criticism of, 219. 

Pergamus, library of, 21, 103. 

Persepolis, 11. 

Persia, 3 ; campaigns in, 74 ; intel- 
lectual condition of, 14 ; religion 
of, 15. 

Peru, civilization of, 289 ; religious 
ideas of the Jncas, 357. 

Philip the Fair. 290. 

Philip of Macedon, 6. 

Philo the Jei^, 123. 

Philoponus, John, asks for the Al- 
elandrian Library, 103. 

Philosophy a state crime, 66. 

Phocas, mutiny of, 74. 

Phlogiston, 302. 

Physicians, Jewish, 107. 


j Picard measures the earth, 166, 236 

I Pigafetti, 164. 

Pius IX., his objects, 843. 

Platonism, 26. 

Plotinus, 123. 

Polygamy, practical effect of, 100. 

Pope, the infallible, 225, 837 ; elec- 
tion of the, 276. 

Population, theory of, 261. 

Posidonius measures the earth, 166. 

Prayers, Christian and Mohamme- 
dan, 108. 

Precession of the equinoxes, 80, 189. 

Predestination, 252. 

Prehistoric man, 196. 

Printing, effects of, 187, 293. 

Protestantism, decomposition of, 
297 ; reconciliation with Science, 
364. 

Prussia, conflict of, with the pope, 
839 ; Church laws of, 340. 

Ptolemies, their policy, 32. 

Ptolemy Soter, birth of, 16; King 
of Egypt, 17 ; an author, 27. 

Ptolemy, the astronomer, 30; his 
system, 157. 

Purgatory, 278. 

Pusey, Dr., translation quoted, 62. 

Pythagorean system, 156. 

R. 

Railways, 288. 

Reformation, 212, 296, 298, 359. 

Registry of nervous impressions, 
136. 

Renan on Averroism, 139. 

Revenues, papal, 276-278. 

Roman rites adopted into ‘Chris- 
tianity, 48 ; aristocratic families, 
pagan, 61. 

Romances, Arabian, 113-117. 

Romanus, treason of, 88. 

Rome, at the Reformation, 256 
political condition of, 269 ; so- 
cial condition of, 260 ; occupied 
by the Italian army, 337. 

Royal Society, 308. 

S. 

Salerno, college of, 116. 

Saracens, the, capture Jerusalem, 
90 ; Alexandria, 94 ; Carthage, 



INDEX. 373 


95 ; invade Spain, 96 ; France, 
97 ; insult Rome, 98 ; dissensions 
of 99 ; disregard of European 
opinion, 99 j dynasties of, 111. 
Schism, the Great, 279, 292. 

Science, sacred, 62; introduction 
into Ehrope, 290 ; influence of, 

310 * . . ^ 

Servetus, his opmions and murder, 
216, 863. 

Shell-mounds, 198. 

Sixtus V., his Bible, 869. 

Societies, Italian scientific, 800. 
Sophronius surrenders Jerusalem, 
90. 

Sosigenes rectifies the calendar, 81. 
Soul, the, 120 ; Vatican Council on 
the, 121 ; nature of the, 127. 
Spain, invasion of, 96. | 

Spinoza, 149. 

Stars, distance of, 176 ; new, 177. 
Steam-engine, 312. 

Stoicism, 23, 261. 

Sun, distance of the, 178. 

Syllabus, 832 ; analysis of, 844. 
“Syntaxis” of Ptolemy, 30. 

Syphilis, 269. 

Syria invaded by Chosroes, 76 ; by 
the Saracens, 87. 

T. 

Tarik invades Spain, 96. 

Taylor’s theorem, 306. 

Telegraph, electric, 811. 

Telescope invented, 169. 

Tertullian, his apology, 39-46. 
Theodosius closes the temples, 64. 
Theophilus disperses the Alexan- 
drian Library, 64. 

Toleration, 298. 

Torquemada, the inquisitor, 146; 

bums Oriental manuscripts, 146. 
Tower of Babel, 186. 

Trent, Council of, 214. 
Trigonometry invented by the Sara- 
cens, 112, 116. 

Trinitarian dispute, 68. 


Trinity, St. Augustine on the, 61 ; 

Plotinus on, 123. 

Truth, criterion of, 201. 

U. 

Universe, government of the, 228. 
Y. 

Valentinian persecutes Platonists, 
66 . • • 

Valerius procures the punishment 
of Pclagius, 66. 

Vanini, murder of, 216. 

Variation of the compass, 162. 
Vasco de Gam^ 162. 

Vatican Council, 830. 

Vedaism, 121. 

Venus, transit of, 178, 320. 

Vicar of Christ, 273. 

Vinci, L. da, 235^ 299. 

Virgin Mary, mother of God, 72 ; 
milk of, 270. 

W. 

Waldenses, their declaration, 209. 
William of Malmesbury on the 
Anglo-Saxons, 266. 

Writing, effects of, 187. 

X. 

Xeres, battle of, 96. 

Ximencs burns Arabic inanuscriptsj 
104 ; perfidy of, 148. 

Y. 

Yermuck, battle of, 89. 

Z. 

Zeno, 23. \ 

Zoroaster, his religion, 16.^ 
Zosimus reverses Jbe opinion of 
Innocent I., 66. * 


the end. 




THE 


INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SFBTFS 


FOBTHCOHnra toluues. 


Mr. J. N. LOOKYEB, F.B.S. Spectrum Analysis: some of its'recent 
Kesults. 

Prof. COBPIEIjD, M.A., M.D. (Oxon.) Air in its Eolation to 
Health. 

Prof. ‘W.'KIM'GDOlf CIiIPPOBD, M.A. The First Principles of 
the Exact Sciences explained to the non-mathematlcal. • 

Prof. T. H. HUXIiEY, XjXi.D., F.B.S. Bodily Motion and 
Consciousness. 

Dr. W. B. OABPBNTBB, LL.D., P.B.S., &c. Tho Physical 
Geography of the Sea. 

W. LAXJDEB LINDSAY, M.D., P.B.S.E. Mind in tho Lower 
Animals. 

Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart., F.B.S. On Ants and Boos. 

Prof. W. T. THISELTON DYEB, B.A., B.Sc. Form and 
Habit in Flowering Plants. 

Prof. MICHAEL FOSTEB, M.D. Protoplasm and tho CellTlieory. 

H. CHABLTON BASTIAN, M.D., F.B.S. Tho Brain as an 
Organ of Mind. 

Prof. A. O. BAMSAY, LL.D., F.B.S. Earth Sculpture: Hills, 
Valleys, Mountains, Plains, Kivers, Lakes ; how they were 
produced, and how they have been destroyed. 

Prof. J. BOSENTHAL. General Physiology of Muscles and Nerves. 

P. BEBT (Professor of Physiology, Paris). Forms of Life and^other 
Cosmical Conditions. 


HENRY S. KING & CO., London. 




•I, Paiemctier Squart, Imdm. 


A LIST OF 

C KEGAN PAUL AND CO.'S 
PUBLICATIONS. 


ABBEY (Henry). 

Ballads of Good Deeds, 
imd Other Verses. Fcsp. Sm 
Cloth gilt, price 5^. 

ABDULLA (HakayitX 
Autobiography of a Malay 
Muftshi. TkansUted hy J. T. 
Thomson. F.R.G. S. With Photo- 
lithograpa Page of Abdulla’s MS. 
Post 8vo. Cloth, price xax. 

ADAMS (A. L.), M.A., M B., 
F.R.S.,P.Q.S, 

Field and Forest Rambles 
of a Naturalist in New Bruns- 
wick. With Notes and Observations 
on the Natural History of Eastern 
Canada. Illustrated. 8va Cloth, 
price Z4r. 

ADAMS (P. O.), P.R.O.S. 

The History of Japan. From 
the Earliest Period to the Present 
Time. New Edition, revised. 2 
volumes. With Maps and Plans. 
Demy 8vo. Cloth, pnce aw. each. 

ADAMS (W. D.,Jun.). 

Lyrics of Love, from Shake- 
speare to Tennyson, Selected and 
arrai^gedby. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth extra, 
gilt edges, price 3;. 6^. 

ADAMS (John), M.A. 

6t. Malo’s Quest, and 
other Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, sr. 
ADON. 

Through Storm & Sunshine. 

Illustrated ,by M. E. Edwards, 
A. T. H. Paterson, and the Author. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price js, 6 ^, 

A. K. H. B. 

A Scotch Communion Sun- 
day, to which are added Certain 
Discourses from a University City. 
By the Author of “ The Recreations 
of a Country Parson.” Second 
Edition. CrovmSvo. Cloth, price 5/. 


ALLEN (Eev. R.), M.A. 
Abraham ; his Life, Timti^ 
years ago. Se- 
wncF Edition. With Map. Pest 
8yo. Cloth, price (r. 


ALLEN (Grant), B.A. 

Physiological Esthetics. 

Crown 8vo. gs. 


AMOS (Prof. Sheldon). 

Science of Law. Second 

Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 

sr. * 

Volume X. of The International 
Scientific Series. 


ANDERSON (Rev. C.), M.A. 
New Readings of Old 
Parables. DemySvo. Cloth, price 

Church Thought ' and 
Church Work. Edited by. Second 
Edition. Demy 8vo. Cloth, price 
js. 6 d. • 

Words and Works in a 
London Parish. Edited by. , 
Second Edition. Demy 8 vq. Cloth, ' 
price 6 s, 

The Curate of Sh 3 n:e. Se- 
cond Edition. 8vo. Clpth, pric# 
71. 6 d. 

ANDERSON (Col. R. P.). 
Victories and Defeats. An 
Attempt to explain the Causes which 
have led to them. An Officer’s 
Manual. Demy 8vo.' Cloth, price 

ANDERSON (i^ C.), C.E. 
Tables for Facilitating the 
Calculation of etrejy Detail in, 
connection with Earthen and 
Masonry Dams. Royal SvosCloth, 
price 


A 



3 


A List of 


ANSON (Lieut-Col. The Hon.-, 
A.)tV.C\M.P. 

The Abolition of Purchase 
mud the ArxnV Rcfralation Bill of 
187*. Crowri 8vo. Sewed, price ix. 

Army Reserves and Militia 
Refoirms. Crown 8vo. Sewed, 
price IX. ^ 

Stoiy of the Supersessions. 
Crown 8vo, Sewed, price 
ARCHER (Thopiaa). 

About my Father’s 
^ Buiiness. Work ami^t the Sick, 
the Sad, and the Sorrowing. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, price 5X. 

ARGYLB (Duke of). 

Speeches on the Second 
Reading of the Church Patron* 
age ^Scotland) Bill in the House of 
floras, June 2, 2874 ; and Earl of 
Camperdown’s Amendment, June 9, 
1874, ■ placing t^e Election of 
Ministers in the hands of Ratepayers. 
Crown 8vo. Sewed, price ix. 

Army 'Of the' North German 

Confederation. 

A Brief Descr 4 >tion of its Organi- 
zation, of the Different Branches 
of the Service and their r6le in War, 
of its Mode of Fighting, &c., &c. 
Translated from the Corrected Edi- 
tion, by permission of the Author, by 
Colonel Edward Newdigate. Demy 
8vo. Cloth, price 5X. 

ASHTON n.). 

Rough Notes of a Visit to 
Belgium, Sedan, and Paris, in 
September, 1870-71. Crown 8vo. 
Qoth, price 3X. 

Aun\ Mary’s Bran Pie. 

By the author of ** St. Olave's.” 
Illustrated. Cloth, price 3X. td, 

Aurora. 

A Volume of Verse. Fcap. 8vo. 
Cloth, price sx. 

AYRTQN (T. C.}. 

*A Scotda Wooing". 2 vols. 

Crown 8vo. Cloth. 

BAQEHOT (Wiiiter). 

Some Articles on the De- 
preciation of Silver, and Topics 
eoim^tedwithit. DemySva Price 


BAGEHOT (Walter). 

Physics and Politics; or, 

’ Thoughts on the Application of the 
Prinaples of Natural Selection'* 
and 'inheritance " td Political 
ciety. Third Edition. C^wn 8vo. 
Cloth, price 4x. • 

Volume. II. Th^ International 
Sdientific Series. 

The English Constitution. 

A Nev^ Edition, Revised ^d 
Corrected, with an Introductory 
Dissertation on Recent Chaimes and 
Events. Crown Bvo. Cloth, price 
7x. 6^. 

Lombard Street. A 

Description of the Money Market 
Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price 7x. 6d. 

BAIN (Alexander), ];.D.D. 

Mindand Body: the Theories 

of their relation. .Fifth E^^on. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 4 X. 

Volume IV. of The International 
Scientific Series. 

BALDWIN (Capt.J. H.), P.Z.S., 
Bengal Stan Corps. 

The Large and Small Game 
of Bengal and the North-West- 
ern Provinces of India. 4to. With 
numerous Illustrations. Cloth, price 

2XX. 

BANKS (Mrs. O. L.). 

God’s Providence House. 

New Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price 3X. 6 d, 

BARING (T. C.), M.A., M.P. 

Pindar in English Rhyme. 

Being an Attempt to render the 
Epinikian Odes with the principal 
remaining Fragments of Pindar into 
English Rhymed^ Verse. Small 
Quarto. Cloth, price 7s. 

BARLEE (Ellen). 

Locked Out : a Tale of the 
Strike. With a Frontispiece. Royal 
i6mo. Cloth, price ix. 6d. 

BAUR (Ferdinand), Dr. Ph., 
Professor in Maulbronn. 

A Philological Introduction 
to Greek and Latin for Students. 
Translated and adapted from the 
German of. By C. Kegan Paul, 
M.A. 'Oxon., and the' Rev. E. D. 
S^NB, M. A., late Fellow of King’s 
Collie, Cambridge, and Assistant 
Master at Eton. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price dx. 


3 


C. Kegan Paui &• 


BAYNB8 (R«v. Candn R. H.)> 
M.A. . 

Home -Songs for Quiet 
HdorSi Hilrd Edition. FcaprSvo. 
Oothiextra, price 3J. 6 d, 

This may alto be had handsomely 
bound in morocco with gilt edges* 

BBCXEH (Bernard H.). 

The Scientific Societies of 
London. Crown 8vo. Doth, 
price 5f. 

BBNNBTT (Dr. W. C.). 

Baby May. Home Poems 

and Ballads. With Frontispiece. 
Crown 8vo. ^ Cloth elegant, price 6 s* 

Baby May and Home 

Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Sewfd in 
Coloured Wrapper, price is. 

Narrative Poems & Ballads. 
Fcap. 8vo. Sewed in Coloured Wrap^ 
per, price ix. 

Songs for Sailors. Dedicated 
by^Special Request to H. R. H. the 
Duke of Edinburgh. With Steel 
Portrait and Illustrations. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, price w. 6 d, 

An Edition in Illustrated Paper 
Covers, price ix. 

Songs of a Song Writer. 

Crown Svo. Cloth, price fir. 

BENNIE (Rev. J. N.), M.A. 

The Eternal Life. Sermons 

preached during the last twelve years. 
Ciown Svo. Cloth, price 6 s. 

BERNARD (Bayle). 

. Samuel Lover, the Life and 
Unpublished Works of. In a 
vols. With a Steel Portrait. Post 
Svo. Cloth, price azx. 

BERNSTEIN (Prof.). 

The Five Senses of Man. 

With 91 Illustrations. Second 
Edition. Crown Svo. Cloth, 
price sx. 

Volume XXI. of The International 
Sciendiic Series. 


Co.^s Publications. 

BE^HAM - EDWARDS (MIm 

Kitty. With a Frontispiece. 

Crown Svo. Cloth, price 6x. < 

BI8COB (A. C.). 

The Earls of Middleton, 
Lords of Clermont and of Fetter- 
cairn, and the Middleton Family. 
Crown Svo. Cloth, price lox. 6d, * 

BISSET (A.) 

History of the^Stfuggle for 
Pat^iamentary Government in^ 
England, a vols. Demy Svo.' 
Cloui, price a4X. 

BLANC (H.), M.D. 

Cholera : How to Avoid and 
Treat it. Popular and Practical 
Notes. Crown Svo. ClotA, price 
4r. 6 d, 

BLAS]S^RNA (Prof. Pietro). 

The Theorvof Sound in its 
Relation to Music. With numer- 
ous Illustrations. Crown Svo. Cloth, 
price 5X. 

Volume XXII. ofThe International 
Scientific Series. 

Blue Roses ; or, Helen Mali- 
nofska's Marriagb. By the Author 
of“Vdra." 2 vols. Third Edition. 
Cloth, gilt tops, 12X. 

BLUME(M^jorW.). 

The Operations of the 
German Armies in France, from 
Sedan to the end of the war of 1870- 
71. With Map. From the Journals 
of the Head-quarters Staff. Trans- 
lated by the late E. M. Jones, Mai. 
20th Foot, Prof, of Mil. Hist, ^Sand- 
hurst. Demy Svo. Cloth, price gx. 

BOGUSLAWSKI (Capt. A. von). 
Tactical Deductions from 
the War of 1870-71. Translated 
by Colonel Sir Lumley Graham, 
Bart., late 18th (Royal Irish) Regi- 
ment. Third Edition, Revised and 
Corrected. Demy Svo. Cloth, price 
V- 

BONWICK(J.), P.R.G.8. 

The Tasmanign Lily. With 

Frontispiece. Crown Svo. Qoth 
price 5X. * , 

Mike Howe, the Bushranger 
of Van Diemen'a Lknd. ^th 
Frontispiece. Crown Sva Cloth, 
price 5X. 


Boswbll.cs;. b.), 

Metrical TranelatiimB lliiotri 
tte 9«ek and UtJn RMti. Md 
' Poemii. Crown ^o. CSoth, 
pricey. 

BgWBN (H. C.). 1 I.A., Heed 
Muter of the Grocers Compeay^s 
Mid^e Qass School et Heckaey.^ 

Studies in Enelisli, for the 
^ of Modem ScWs* Small Crown 
8 va Qot^ price tf. ^ 

BOWRIHQ(L,), p.S.I. 

Bastern Experiences. 

lUtistrated with Maps and Diagrams. 
Demy gro. Cloth, price i6i. 

Autobiographical Recollections 
of Sir John Bowring. With 
Memoir liy Lewin B. Bowring. 


^ BROOKS (Rev. S. A 

t^vQiiem. ai^ Minister of Bai^ 


Demy 8vo. Price 


BRADLEY fp. H.). Sermons. First Seriej 

«... I oa ^ Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth 

Ethical Studies. Critical 

Essays in Moral Philosophy. liargc Sermons. Second 
' post 8vo. Cloth, price or* Third Edition. Crown 8v< 

* " price 7x, 

Mr. Sidgwick’s Hedonism : • «« 

an Examination of the Main Argu- 

ment of “The Methods of Ethia.” c ^ A i 

Demy 8vo.j sewed, price 2S. 6rf. oermon. Crown 8vo. Sewed 

Brave Men’s Footsteps. ®ROOKE(W. G.), m,a. 


The Late Rev. 'F. W>Jte- 

^ hertMn, M.A., Life and 
of. Edited^* 

« i .Sermons. 

7/^^ With Steel Portrait Price 

II. Library Edition. 8vo. With 
Two Steel Portraits. rPrice xu* 

III. A Popular Edition, in i wot 
8vo. Price 6r. 

Theology ki the English 
Poet*. - qow«R, • Cqlbmbc*, 
Wordsworth, and Burns. 

Edition. Postfivo. Cloth, price gs, 

Christ in Modem Life. 
Ninth Edidoa. Crown Svo. Clntli 
price 7r. 6df. 

Sermons. First Series. Ninth 

Edition. Crown 8vo. Clo^, price dr. 

Sermons. Second Series. 
Third Edition. Crown 8vo. ^th, 
pnce ys, 

Frederick Denison Maurice: 

^e Life and Work of. A Memorial 
Sermon,' Crown 8vo. SeWed, price i j. 


By the Editor of “ Men who have 
Msen, A Book of Example and 
Anecdote for Young People. With 
Four. Illustrations by C. Doyle. 
Phird Edition, Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
pnce y. 6(/. 

BRIALMONT (Col. A.). 

Hasty Intrenchm’ents. 

Translated by Lieut. Charles A. 
^Empspn, R.A. With Nine Plates. 
DemySvo. Cloth, price 6f. 

c 

BROOKE (Rev. J. M. S.y, M. A. « 

Heart, be Btill. A Sermon 
pre^h^ in Holy Trinity Church,- 
• 3»*no. i>ewed. 


The Public Worship 
Regulation Act. With g, Classified 
Statement of its Provisions, Notes, 
and Index. Third Edition, revised 
and corrected. Crown 8va Cloth, 
price 3J. 6</. 

Six Privy Council Judg- 
Annotated by. 
ITiird Edition. Crown 8vo, Qolth, 
price gs. 

BROUN (J. A.). 

Magnetic Observations at 
Trevandrum and Augustia 
Malley. Vol. I. 410. ^Ooth, 
pnce63j. 

The Keport from above, separately 
, sewed, pneeaw. ' 


5 


C.'^egun Paiil 6 * Co's Publications. 


BMMW (Rw. Ji BiWwlaJv B.A. 
T&feii^erLife. ItsReality, , 
Experience and SetriOT. Fourth 
Qrowiv^^ Ctoth^ price 

Doctrine of Annihilation 
in the Light of the Gospel 
of Love. Fwe lliscourscs. Second 
Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 
9 t, 6 d: 

GROWN a. Groumbie), LL.D. 
Reboisemcnt in France; or, 
Records of the Replanting of the 
Alps, the Cevenncs, and the Pyre- 
ni^ with Trees, tterb^e, and Bush. 
Demy 8vo. Cloth, price 124^ 6 d. 

The Hydrology of Southern 
Africa. Demy 8vo. Cloth, price 
104. 6 d, 

BROWNE (Rev. M. E.) 

Until the Day Dawn. Four 

Advent Lectures. Crown 8 vo. Cloth, 
price < 24 . 6 d, 

BRYANT (W. C.) 

Poems. Red-line Edition. 

^ith 24 Illustrations and Portrait of 
the Author. Crown 8vo. Cloth extra, 
price 74. 6 d. . „ . 

A Cheaper Edition, with Froutis- 
piecel Small crown 8 vo. Cloth, price 
34. 6 d, 

BUCHANAN (Rqbert). 

Poetical Works. Collect^ 

Edition, in 3 vols., with Portrait, 
Cfown 8vo. Cloth, price 6 s. each. 

Master-»Spirits. Post 8vo. 
Goth, price 104. 6 d. 

^ULKELEY(Rev. H.J.). 
Walled in, and other Poems.' 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 54. 

BUNNETT (P. E.). 

Linked at L^st. Crown 8vo. 

Goth. 


BURTON (Mrs. Richard). 

Th^ Inner Life of S3rria, 
PalestHie, and the Holy l^d. 
With M^, Photograpns, and 
C^oured Plates. 9 vols. Second 
Edition. Demy 8va Goth, price 
944. 


CADELLCMrs.^. M.).^ 

Ida /Craven : A Nov^ 2 

vols. Crown 8vo. Goth* 

CALDERON. 

Calderon’s Dramas; The 
Wonder-Working Magician— Liie is 
a, Drcfun— The Purgatory of St 
Patrick. Translated hy Denis 
Florence^ MacQarth^. Post 8vo. 
Goth^ price 104. ^ 

CARLISLE (A. D.),' B. A. 

Round the World in 1870. 

A Volume of Travels, with Maps. 
New and Cheaper Edition. Demy 
8vo. Goth, price 64. 

CARNB(MissE.T.). O 

The Rcalmjof Truth. Crown 

8V0. Cloth, price 54. 6 d . 

CARPENTER (E.). 

Narcissus and other 

Poems. Fcap. 8vp. Cloth, price 
Ss- 

CARPENTER (W. Bl), LL.D., 
M.D., F.R.S., &c. ' 

The Principles of Mental 
J^hysiology. With their Applica- 
tions to the Training and Discipline 
of the Mind, and me Study of its 
Morbid Conditions. Illustrat^. 
Fourth Edition. 8vo. Cloth, price 

124 . 

CARR (Lisle). 

Judith Gwynne. 3 vols. 

Second Edition. Crown 8vo. Goth. 


CHAPMAN (Hon. Mrs. B. W.). 

A Constant Heart. AStoiy. 
9 vols. Goth, gilt tops, price tii. 

CHRISTOPHERSON (The late 
Rev. Henry), M.A. 

Sermons. With an Iptro- 

duttionby JohdRae, LL.D., F.S.A* 
First Senes. 4 >orm 8va doth, 
price 74. Wl 

Sermons. '\^ith an Intre- 
duction.byjohn Rae, LLD» F,S.A. 
Second Smes. Crown SvoT Goth, 
price 6 t. 


^ , 4 


CLAYTON (CecU). 

Effie's Qa^el; How 
uai iiid H«W ^ Woo. - A 
*«vols. Cloth. 

CLERK (Mrs. Godfrey). 

’lidm en N^s. Historical 
Tales and Anecdotes of the Times 
of the Early Khalifahs. Translated 
from the Arabic Originals. Illus- 
trated with Historical and Explana* 
tory Notes. CroevgSvo. Cloth, price 
7^‘ c 

CLBRY(C.), Capt. 

Minor Tactics. With 26 
Maps and Plans. Third and revised 
Edition. Demy 8vo. Cloth, price ;6r. 


COLLINS <Mo;rtimer}. , 

The Princess A 

Story of 1871. ” 

8 qulM SHchesteris Wfhim* 

3 vo^ ’ CI0& • f - 

Miranda. A Midsiimmer 
Madness. 3 voK Cloth. „ 

Inn of Strangfe MeetingSi 

and other Poems. Crown 8va 
Cloth, price 5r. 

The Secret of Long^ Life. 
Dedicated by specif pennisrion to 
Lord St. Leonaids. Fourth Edition. 
Large crown 8vo. doth, price 5s. 

COLLINS<Rev. R.), M.A. 


LODD (EdwardX F.R.A.S. 

The Childhood of the 

World : a Simple Account of Man 
in Early Times. Third Edition. 
Crown 8va Cloth, price 31. . 

A Special Edition for Schools. 

Price xf, ^ 

The Childhood of Reli- 
gions. Including a 'Simple Account 
of the Birth and Growth of Myths 
and Legends. Third TKpusand. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price sf. » 

COLERIDGE (Sara). 

Pretty Lessons in Verse 
for Good Children, with some 
Lessons in Latin, in Easy Rhyme. 
A New Edition. Illustrate reap. 
8vo. Cldth, price 3^. 6 d, 


Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale. 
With an Introductory Preface by the 
Right Hon. Lord Coleri^c, of 
Ottery St Mary. A Ne^ Edition. 
Illustrated. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price 71. 6 d. 

Memoir and Letters of Sara 

C^eridge. Edited by her Daughter 
With Index, a roll. Wkh Two • 
Portraits. Third Edition, Revised 
and Corrected. Oowa 8va . Poth» 
'jprice \ 

^^CheapEditloii. With one 
CSdilli/priee 71. 6<f. * ’ * ' 


Missionary^ Enterprise in 
the East. With special reference 
to the Syrian Christians of Malabar, 
and the results of modem Missions. 
With Four Illustrations. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, price 6 s,, 

CONGREVE (Richard), M.A.» 
M.R.C.P.L. 

Human Catholicism* Ti^o 

Sermons delivered at the Positivist 
School on the Festival pf Humanity, 
^ and 88, January i, 1875 and 1876. 
Demy 8vo. Sewed, price 11. 

CONWAY (Moncure D.). . 

Republican Superstitions. 

Illustrated by the Political Hutory 
dr theTJnited States, Including a 
Correspondence with M. Louis Blanc. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 51. 

t 

CONYERS (Ansleyy. 

Chesterleigh/ 3 vols. Crown 

8vo. Cloth. 


COOKE (M. C.). M.A., LSC'.D. 



7 


C. Kegan Paui.&^ C^*s Publicatum. 


of^e Hv- 
The I^ew Chcmitttr^. With 

M P'lEustmtiQns, Edition. 

8vo,* CIOtKjMnce 55 . 

Volume IX. of ln6 International 
Sci&tific Series. 

4 ^ 

Scientific Culture. Crown 

8v0j. - Cloth, price js, 

COOPER (T. T.); F.R.Q.8. 1 

The. Miahmee Hills: an 

Accounts of a Journey made in an 
Attempt to. Penetrate Thibet, from 
A^m, to open New Routes for 
Commerce. Second Edition. With 
Four Illustrations and Map. Post 
8yo. Ctoth, price xos. 6</. 


Cornhill Library of Fiction 
(The). Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 
3r. 64/. per volume. 


Half-a-Doaen Daughters. By 

J. Masterman. 

’ The House of Raby. By Mrs. G. 
Hooper. 

A Fight for Life. By Moy 
Thomas, 

Robin Gray. By Charles Gibbon. 
One of Two ; or, The Left- 
Handed Bride. By J. Hain Fris- 
well. 

Qod*8 Providence House. By 
Mrs. G. L. Bsmks. 

For Lack of Gold. By Charles 
Gibbon.. 

Abel Drake*8 Wife. By John 
Saunders. 

Hirell. By John Saunders. 

! 

OORY (Lieut. Cbl. Arthur). , 

The Eastern Menace; or. 
Shadows of doming Events. 
8vo. Cloth, price sr. 


Cosmos^ 

A Poem. Fcap. 8va Cloth, i^e 

3 £. ddl 

CQtTON^R.T.). 

t(Ir. Catihgton. .A Tale of 

DtriFd'iuid Conspirac^^ Crown 
Syo. Cloth. 


CB^SSWELL (Mrs. G.). 

.^The King's Banner. Drama' 
■ in Four Acts, Five Illustrations. 
4ta Cloth, price lor. 6ff. 

CROMPTON (Henry). 

Industrial Conciliation. 

Fcap. Cloth, price os^ 6^^ 

CUMMINS (H.}.), M. A. 

Plirochial Charities of the 

City of London. Sewed, price is, 

CURWEN (Hen^). 

Sorrow and Song: Studies 

of Liten^ Struggle. HengyMfirger 
—Nov^lis— Alexander Pet6fi— Hon- 
ord de Balzac Edgar Allan Poe 
-i^drd Chdnier. a vols. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, grice 15^. 

DANCE (Rev. C. D.). 

Recollections of Four Years 
in Venezuela. With Three Illus- 
trations and a Map. Crown 8vo. 
Cloth, price 7s, 6d, 

D’ANVBRS (N. R.). 

The Suez Canal : Letters 

and Documents descriptive of its 
Rise and Progress in 1854-56. By 
Ferdinand de Lesseps. Translatea 
by. Demy Svo. Cloth, price xos. 6d, 


Little Minnie’s Troubles. 

An Every-day Chronicle. With Four 
Illustrations by W. H. Hughes. 
Fcap. Cloth, price 31. 6<f. 


DAVIDSON (Rev. Samuel), D.D., 
LL.D. 

The New Testament, trass* 
lated from the Latest Greek 
Teat of Tiaehendorft A new iad 
thocouf^y revUhd Editioa. Fast 
• 8V0. cSth, priee lof. V 


Canon of the Bible : It9 

l^or^ma^ Ffuctna- 

dons. Sei^Ediaon. SmaB crown 
8vo. Cloth, price 54; 




of 3 lk)^ gotoery, Adv«ntareS( luid 
. Nateir^ Hisiory. With Sixteen Il- 
lustrations by BoswcMrth W. Har^ 
" Crown 8 VO. Cloth, price 6#» 

RAml^es and Adventijvea 
of Our School Field Cllb. With 
Four Illustrations. Crown Svo. 
Cloth, price s^. * ^ 

DAVIES (Rev. J.* L.), U.A. « ^ 

Theoloigy and ^ Wtorality. 

Essays on Questions of Belief and 
'Racucc. Crown 8vo. Clq^^^^e 

bXwSf N (Oeor^e), M.A. 

Pray era, with a Discourse 
25 . VJ??:®?'' Edited by his Wife. 
Third £ditioo« Crown 8vo. Prioe 6s. 

/KERKADECk (VicomteBse 
Solange). 

A Chiequcred Life, being 
M^ous of the Vicomtesse dc Leo- 
ville Meilhan. Edited by. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, price 7s. 6d. 

DE L’HOSTE (Col. E. P*). / 

The Desert Pasto?,. Jean 
JarouBite^. Translated from the 
French bf Kuz^ne Pelletan. Wlti. 


French bfEuginePellctau. Witha 
Frontispiece. New Edition.' Fcap. 
Svo. Uoth, price jr. 6 d; . 

DE REDCLIFPE (Viacount 
Stiatford). P.C., K.Q.,b.c:Br 

Why am I A Christian? 

Edition. Crown 8vo. Qoth. 
pricasf. 

DSTOCQDBVaLEtA). 
Corresppndence and Con* 
vmationa of, with Nimu Wll, 
Senior, from 1834 to iSen. 
Edit^ by M, C^M. SimpsoriTfl 


rosttJvo. UethppjIteaM; 
l?JiVERE(A»hteyX 
Aleaandnr the OieM;’ A 

Infiurt Btidtf, «Kd 

CfcA I 


- ' DB- VIMt# 

g? 

^ntnr qnd Zara Extern 
Romance. Ikisfail, and ^ olher 
Poems, Mediutive and tyHodi 
Fcap. 8vo. ; Price 6s. 

The Fall , of Pora, the 
Seat!^ after Proaerpine, and 
other Poems, Meditative and Lyrical. 
Fcap. 8vo. ^ Price 6s. ' ' 

DB WILLE(E.). 

Under a Clond; or, Johan- - 

nes Olaf. A Novel. Translated by 
F. E. Bunnitt. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 
Cloth. 

DENNIS (J.). 

English Sonnets. ColTected 

and Arranged. EleganSy bound. 
Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, price 34. 6d. 

DOBSON (Auatin). 

Vignettes in Rhyme, and 
Vera de Sooidtd. Third' ^tion. 
Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, price ss. • 

Proverbs in Pdrcelain. By 
the Auriior of “ Vignettes in Rhyme.'' 
Crown 8vo. 6s. 

DOWDEN (Edward), LL.D. ^ 
Shaksjpere : a Criticul Study 
ofhis Mmdand Art. Second Edition. 
Post 8vd; Cloth, price sssi • 

Poems. Fcap. 8vo, Cloth. 

price 5f. # 

DOWNTON (Rev. H.), M.A. 
Hymna and Verses. Ott- 
•g™ Md Trai^ated. Smidl ciown 
oVo. Cloth, price 31, 6d, 

DRAPER (J. W.J. M.D., LLIV, 

w the l/mvenity,aC it^ 







C. KegatfP(^ Publications. 


lir Life' «sd 

Lcttfon^ Third Edition. Ci^iwn 
8vo. Ciofib,' price sj: 

l;;ike .Divine Klnglioin ' on 
Enrtlk as it is in Heaven, 8vo. 
Qoth, price lor. 6</. 

The Son of Man : His life 

l and Ministry. CrowSvo. Cloth, 
prwe 7f 1 * ' 

DRBWRY (Q. 0.)i M.D. ^ . 

The Common-Sense 
Mani^ement of tlie Stomach. 
Third Edition. FdAp. 8vo. Cloth, 
«. 6</.. 

DRII^RVVg. O.), M.D., and 
BARTLETT (H. C.), Ph.D., 
FX.S. 

Cup and Platter; ^or, Notes' 

Food ^d its Effects. ^ Small 8va 
Cloth, price 2S. 6 d. 

DRUMMOND (Miss), 

Tripps Buildings. A Study 

fr^Life, with Frontispiece. Smtul 
crown 8vo. Cloth, price yt, 6 <i, 

DURAND (tady). 

Imitations from the Qer*^ 
man of Spitta and Terategen. 
Ficap. Svo. Cloth, price 4^. 

DU VERNOlSXCol. von Yerdy). 

Studies in leading Troops. 

An authorized and accurate Trant- 
latbn by Lieutenant H. J. T. 
HUd^d, 71st Foot. Parts I. ^d 
^I. iDcmy Svo. Cloth, price 71.' 

EDBK(Frederich). 

Tbs 'Nile without 4 
Dfagstnan. Second Edition. 
Crown 8vo. Ctoth> price 7t> 6 di 

BDWARUB(ftay. Baatt). 

MkiOT Chords; Or, Songs 
for tilt Suffering l a Volume of 
Vtrte, .Fcap. 8ve. CbUv pika 
price aa 

Ctowndvo. ,Clot^^ 


ELLIOTT XEbenaaerLTha Com 
Lptwl^yttier. 

'Poems* Edited by his son, 
the Rev. Edwin Elliott, of St. Johii%' 
- Anbgua. »*vols. Crown 8vo. Cloth,' 
- price i8j. 

ENGLISH CLERGYMAN. 

Ah l^ssay on the Rule of 
Faith and Creed of Atbanatiut. 
Shall the Rubric precedi^ the 
Creed be removed- from the rayer- 
book? Sewed. *8vo. Price ir. 

Epfc of Hades (The)., Book II. ' 

By a New Writer. Author of 
** Songs of Two Worlds.” Fcap.Svd. 
ClcMH, price 5r. 

Books!. and III. Fcap.Svo. Goth, 
mcc 3J. 6 ii. Complete bne Vol. 
reap. 8vo. Cloth, price js. 6 d, 

Eros Agonistes. 

Poems. By £. 'B. D. .Fcap. 8v6. ' 
Go^ price 

Essays on the EndownieUt 

ofReaearch. * 

By Various WriteTs. 

List op Contributors. 

Mark Pattison, B. D. 

James S. Cotton, B, A. 

Charles £. Appleton, D. C L 
Archibald H. Sayce, M. A. 

Henry Clifton Sorby, F. R. S. 

Thomas K. Cheyne, M. A. 

W. T. Thiselton Dyer, M. A 
Henry Nettleship, M. A. 

Square crown octava Goth, 
price xor. 6f/. 

EVANS (Mark). 

The Story of our Father’s 

LfOve, told to' Children; being a 
New and Enlarged^ Edition of 
Theology for Children. With Four 
Illustrarions. Fcap. 8vo. Qo^ 
price 3a 

A Bbokof Comiuon Prayer 
and Worahip for Houaehot^ 
Use, compiled exclusively from thr 
B^y Sdi^ures^ ^Feap. 8w).' Cl0t%' ' 

E^B^^i^Qes. Sir V.), C.B., 

. Lays of s’.kaiglit^ErrftRt* 
la flMksyvLendt. , S(mkr9jenmm 
Svo. .With Six IfltistraUuiisi Xlock, 
price jSk^ 







F^THyULt 

a^A-C»?m_<i!^' ■^tfc.'Vr-A.. 

®‘A|lQttHA,R;86k-{^.jr ' 

c««w» 

Svn aoA, i)weV- 

^wn 

MO. Cloth, pnc< 3 j. 6 ^, . ,J ^ 

WI, Elsie’s Hoiidsjrs' at 
Koselands. « „ Crown 8vo. . 
Cloth, price 2 ^, 6A • 

>AyRE(MonfcJ.). “ 

The Qovemment of the 
NstlbiuaEWfence. Piimth^lr 
A**’*3*^^ October, 

PSNN (O. M.). 

A Little World. A Novel, 

in 3 vols. 0 ’ 

FtRRIS {Heniy Weybridge). 
Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth'. 

price 5 j. ^ ' 

FI8HER(AIice> / 

3~l^ c».» 

footman (Rev. H.), M.A. 

■Prom Home and Back; or, 

f?*?* of Sin ae iceo {n the 

FOTHBRQiLL(Jeiele), 

Aldyth : A Novel. 2 vols. 
Cn^tvo. .Cloth, SM. 

Healey. A Romance. 1 vo^ 
Crown 8va Cloth. . 

FOWLS (Rev. J. W.), M.A. ' 
llnmortalltlF. InsnirAHvJ* -uPIr 


^ng^Cfetw Pony 


8^ VTinsi 

oVq. Cloth, pince xok. &' 

, FOR.BOURNET ^h. r.> 

\oif John Locke« 


MiAS»R(D<»naiaL,, 

’sssreasp 

^ giW tp Ohe.Hmi<lred 
Pounds, imdat Rates ptog.^ 

ptr/Rup-- 

Uothi pjjc^ . 

The TltfeAtened Famine in 

Beiyal : How it ma^ be Met, and 
Recurrence of Famines in "fn^ 
’ Being No. ^ of ** Qcca- 
Sr u Indiah Afairs^*' 

^*^3^Maps., Crown gvo. Clo^, 

FRiSWBLL (J, Hria). 

The Better Self. EsMysfor 

^™^Lifc, Grown Sva ' CiMhk 

I’T® J «. The Left. 

S*"'*''*. Bride., Wth.a FioMis. 

, Svo' Cloth, iiriee 

GARDNER (JH.). ' 

Sunflowers. A; Book of 

Verses. Pcap. gro. aolh, i>tice jr. 

OARDRBR (J.), m.D. f 

Longevity; The Mekns of 

ProlomrinoT TJr« aAs.a 



pnce 4 r. 

OARRBTT (E,). 

Hy^ still Waters. A Story 

for Quiet Hours With Seveir Iflui 
trahons. Grown '^vo. Cloth,prtcedf.* 

OBIKIR (Cunningham), D.D. , 

Tlw 'Ljfe 4nd Words of 

GIBBON (Charles), ' 

For Lack Of Gold.- With- a 




Q.^Kegan Pidilicatwns. 

’ J. - -". JfV^ '■■■>■ ■ ■ ..t^. 



oibL:!<9^. Hy. w.); B.A. 
Myths arid Songs from the 
80q% P«eific.^ With^ Preface by 
F.' Mibe Mflller.' M, Ai:> Professor ^ 
Comparative I^Uology at' Ori|ord. 

'PostSvo. Cloth, price pr. : . * , 

QODKm (James). « 

The' Religious History of 
Ireland: PrimUive, Papal, and 
Pmtestant Including the £vs^e> 
licai Missions, Catholic Agitations, 
and Chitrch Progress of.the last half 
C^Cttiy. 8vo. Cloth, price zu. 




GODWIN (William). 

William Godwin: His 
Prietida and. Contemporaries. 
With Portraits and Facsimiles of the 
handwriting of Godwin and his Wife. 
By C. Kegan Paut 3 vols. Demy 
Syo. Cloth, price aSx. ^ 


The Genius of Christianity 
Unveiled. Bmng Essa^ never 
before published. Editgo, with a 
Preface, by C. Regan Paul. Crown' 
8 vo. Clom, price 7s, td, (; . 


OOd^MAIi tW.> 

Pe»ri‘>or 

Antille*. Ciotb.jpiic« 

j*. <rf. ’ '• , 

QdULD (Rev. S. Baring), M. A. 

The Vicar of Morwenstow: 

& Memoir of the Rev. R. Rawker. 
With Porthut Third Edition, re- 
vised. SquarepQstSvd. Cloth, zor. d^. 

GRANVILLE •fA. B.), M.D.,. 
F?R.S.,Ac. ' 

Autobiography of A. B. 
Granville; 1 F.R.S., etc. Ecjited, 
wtl^ a brief account of the cohclildhig 
yesirs of his life, W-his youngest 
Daughter, Paulina B. Ogu^lle. a 
yols. With a Portrait. Second Edi- 
tion. Demy 8 vo. Cloth, price 341. 

GRAY (Mra.^U 88 ell). 

Lisette’e Venture. A Novel. 

8 vols. Crown 8 vo. Cloth*. 

greenwood' (J.)/ ''TheAma- 
teur Casual.** 

In Strange Company; or, 
The Note Book of a Roving Corre- 
spondent. Second Edition. CroWn 
8 vo.' Cloth, price dr. 


GOBTEB (Ca'pt. A. von). 
Operations of the German 

Engineers during the Wsu: of 
1870- Z871. Published by Authority, 
and in accordance with Oimcial Docu- 
ments. 'Translated from the Gennan 
W G>lohel G. Graham, V.C., C.B., 
R.E. With 6 large Maps. Demy 
^ 8 VO. Cloth, price air. 


GOLDIE (Lieut. M. H, Q.) 
Hebe : a Tale. Fcap. 8vp. 
Cloth, pride sr. 


GOODENOUGH (Commodore J. 
G.), RN., C.B., O.M.G: 
Jbrirhale of, dtcring his Last 
jCon^mnd a 4 l^nfor Omeer on the 



‘Woodcuts^ 

^ Portrait Secoi^ Edirion* 
s post 8 vo, Ootb, price z4r; 


GREY (John), of Dilston. 

John Grey (of Dilston) : 

Memoirs. By Josrahine £. Butler. 
New and Revised Edition. Crotm 
8 vo. Cloth, price jr. 6 <f. . 

GRIFFITH (Rev. T.), A.M. 

Studies of the Divine MM* 

ter. Demy 8 va Cloth, price zar. 


GRIFFITHS (Capt. Arthur), 

Memorials of Millbank, and 
Chapters in a Prison History. 
/With Illustrations ^ R. Goff aad 
^ the Author. avtSs. PostSvo. Cloth, 
price air. 


Th^vQueen’s ShiUibg. A 

Novel. 8 vob. doth. 





m 



M 





|UTt;ALBt»^.the^Sk 





jRad^ea of Bla^l^^iniMiie 
Wwnpmena. Trtuiglattd by u D. 
B. <So»^ F.R.-Sj:i) Fse».S^»jUsy. 
8 to. CloW(ppc«7A iS|^, .. , , g' 

•omw^Y (itAK ArcW ,; . ' 

wSiSffiSiSS?; 

vpiUj. Crowu^/Q, Clo^ pHc^Sr 

f W Pdnctolwt in ChuNU 

J^^^ ;;:Sea«r8v^ 

HASGKSL (Prof. Bmftji. 

Tbci Hidto^ of [^rei^pn, 

Trsfidiljulon revised by Professor E. 

Lankwter, M.A.; F.ItCwib 
Colotired Plates imd ^oealoffical 


l^ts and animals, a vdt. 

Ewtion. Po$t8vx». C^otbp price 331. 

HAlKiOURT (Capt A.,F. P.J. 

The Shakespemte AxgQWi 

Containing much of the wealth of 
Sh^e^>^*s Wisdom apd Wit^ I 
^l^al>etically arranged ^d g Hf fjL I 

C^wn 8 vo. cS^ priced I 

HUEtmSOIf (ldjeut..Cq|. JQ. 

The Oiftceir'#- MiMnpratr>» 
dum Bpok for Peaco and War^ 
Oblo^3Wh)aieMS^^ 

pencditialceai. 6A; rosd^ sii 

HAWBia(Rew H. R), M.A. " 

Current Coin. SlaterbiliiMn*— ^ • 

Crwim.8w; QA, 

mi 

^w wiOB. Gmam 8vk-. CMi|,piioa- 

‘ V .w > 

^V.ibr'&e; 


"=-'vr :■ ' . 


HAWTitOltNE (NftWjirialjE; » 
SeptiitiluB. ^ A'‘ jRo96b«fiOkr. 
SotondEdlt^m. Co>wikfeor^^ 

pnco«pi. ; 

Mast)wrj>f teagby 8 c^b 
Rugby Seboof 

yrth an IntroductoiyvEssanaS 
Indwelling of' the^ Holy 
' Cro^ii 8voj Cloth. prioe7r.«d^\^ ‘ 

Hegthergate. 

' A Slery. of a^'^.ClUiU 

raeur* By aN ew.'Auth^. a wU. 
Cioi^ 8vo. Cloth. - 

ffftXrX^.'V^ALD (Baron P».voaX 
Tbn, Rusaians in Centtal 

Aaia, ^ CriUcal >■' Exanynariom, 
down to the present ‘time, ^Tmi 

^ograplw and Of <^tod 

^pslated by Eieut^^GbL 













p. JCfgan PublUttii^. 





Wi^ 

yo^ r^<^h^^rice m* tiii a ?»; * 
""jp* '-C* V * • '* ' 

’ '>itf of ']^ 

A. Popular Treatise on* the Pri^ples 
ofVlfBai^M^t hA^ oA tile Lkws of 

, Jj^tuniisQlie L £niect. a in ^ u Crown 
^ ' ^h, :^kS6 3*. . 

HOC|a-^Y<W. B.^ . 

Talcs 6f the ^ettaha; er/ 

Leidure BouriL the 
AtUtoof " Panduranff Hari!" With 
ncehv Lord Staley of Aider* 
a, YO&. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price ax^. 

JRandu^g Hari; or, Me- 
moli^ of a Hindoo. A Tale of 
l^hratta lift sixty years ago. With 
a I^ftce by Sir H. ^ Bartle £. 
Fiftrb, G.X:. S. I.> &c. a vols. Crownio 
price Ma 

HOI^P^AUBR (Capt:). 

• The German Artillery in 

'thC Battles- near MTetx. Clased 
Mlhe official lopom of the Oeraum 
ArtiflerV. - Translated by Capt. E. 
•O. Hollist. With Map and Plans. 
Bemy&vo, Cloth, price axa. 

.M.P. 

■A Novel. 3T0la Croymavo. < 3 oth. 

HdLMBS (E. Q. A.). 

Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, * 
P^S*- ■ - - . 

HOMKrrD (M4ar W. R. M.) 

uT ilbliin r or, 
iHindiistammadeSii^. CrawttSvo. 
Cbt^, price 5 J. 

* .y* 

’1Wnae*«i ttosrrto 

..: : rjsrBss- 

Syob Cloth, price 3a 



i^Coolte^ . li^ Iri vaU^ 

‘ if 

RftOPBR (jMrra, 0 .). / 

The'Ho^e 6f ^ator. V.With 

a liVoAtiipiece. ^ Ctowa 8yo. C^, 
prietar.^^ ' ^ - 

HOPkVnB (Mf). 

The Port of Refuge; or, 
‘Counsel and' AM to Shipmasters In 
^ Difficulty, Doubt, or Distress. 

Svov S^ond and Revised Baidon. 
'Cloth, price Sk , . " 

IfORNB (WUliam), hA:A. 
Reason ati^ ^ Revelation : 

an Exaipinadon into the Nature and 
' Contents ^ Scripture Revelation, as 
comparedTwtdi other Forms of Truth. 
Demy 8va Cfoth, price tAsc ' 

HdWARD (Mary M.). 

Beatrice Aylmer, and other 

Tales. Crown Svow Cloth, price 6r. 

HOWARD (Rev. G. B,y. 

An Old Legend of 
PauPs. Fcapr Bvo. Doth, price 

4 S. && 

HOWELL (James). 

A ^ale' of the Sea, Sdn. 
net.; end other Room.. Ftt,. 
8yp. .Cloth, price sr. 

HtJOHBB (AnisonTT 
Ponelope a&d ofher Poems* 

Fcap» dve. Cloth, price 4#. 6 if, - 
HtTLL (Bdinund C. P.). 

The European in 4ttdle* 

WiJ, a Mawf At Ajg 

Ilf DiANS. By R. R. S. . 

. F.R.C.S.E. Sscpnd 
and Con^t^ 

prfte^ , • , ' 

HVMEIERSy (feev. W<}, 

' Sewed, price zr. 










c. Keg^ PiAlieaiions, ^>5 





^ JtVo^ litAjS Third 

IISBuW^C^wi^tva ^ Optb, pn^^ S^« 
Th« ^ ^ht ; 

vTWJih^^GenMia.Ac^^ of Phx«c« 
Optics. By Df,' Eug^ l^oitncl, 
"K&fcssor of Phy»cs m 
Sty of Erlangen. Withiaa iUwtra- 
t|m and a ti^le of Spec^ itOao-^ 
intf4klioMp|iy- Becond Edison. 

^ Crown Bvq/ Qoiht pnfeo S*? 

Benedea,^ lr*wiw>v.. v. y' C' 

of Louvtfki, Corre^ndent of the 
In^tute^f FranCe. . With 83 Ulus- 
.JtndioiM^ Second Edition. Crown 
8[V0; Goth, price s^. . 

XifL* Farm^matioB. ByPrrfes^ 
'SchOtsenbegger, Director Of the 
Chemical Laboratory^ at the Sor- 
boxme. -With aS Illustrations. Second 
EdiSon, Oown$vo. aoth,pncesr. 

The Five Senses of Man. / 

' - to — -item, of the , Uni- 


i mustra. 
tions. Second Edition. Crown 8 vo.. 
^ Goth, price 5#. 

'xxn..The Theory of Sound in 
'Ita Relation to Music. ,By„Pro- 
."^le^r Pietro Blasema, of the Royal 
Cnivcrtity of Rome. With numerous 
illustrations. Second Edition. Crown 
8vo. Goth, price ss. 

^ I^orUuondng Volunus^ 

L Prof. W. Kihodok Clifford^ M. A. 

. The First Prij^ples or the Exact 
Sciences explained to Ac Noi^-roa- 
"Aemarical. 

Ei^X H. Huxuiv,LL.D., F.R.S. 

BOmlyJdorionaDif.ConsciQusnoss. 

P.R.S. 
Sea. 


Xaupm Lino^y, M.D., 
F:K.S.E. Mind in the tower 
Animals. 

Bart., FaReS. 

wk JkM^jasA 



^^SelieS jTlie}— 
i*&f-^‘N0*MAN. IjOC«VS»i Fj'R.S. 
Spedomhs Analysiiti 
Prof., Mien AEL Fost^ >1J)s Pro- 
t(^dasm and the Cell ‘Ineory^ '* 

laiJ CBarC'^m" BASTrAir/ M.D., 
P.R.S. ’ The Brain as an Organ of 
Mind. 

prof. A.C Ramsay, LL.O./PJ[tS. 
Earth Sculpture: Hills, .Valleys, 
Jdotmtains, PlaiMr Rivers*. 
now they were Produced, i^id how 
they have been Destroyed. 

Prof. J. Rosenthal. Gehenl'Phy- 
siotogy of Muscles and Nerved ^ 

P. BbET (Professor of Physmlegy* 
ParisX Forms of LU3s and other 
' C^osmieal Condition?,' , 

Prof. CoRFiliLP, M.A., M.D. 

' (Oxon.) Air in Us relation to Health. 

JACKSON (T. O.). 

Modern Oothic Aircliitee* 

ture. Crown Svo. Cloth, ptios 

JACOB tMid.-Oen. Sir 61 La 
Grand), K.C.S.I., C.B; 

Western India Before and 
■ -during the Mutinies. Fiotures 
dnwn from life. Second EdMon. 
Crown Svo. Cloth, pnee 7*- 6»« ,, 

JBNKINS (B.) and RAYMbNl> 
(J.), Bsqs. 

, A 'Xeeal Handbook for 

ArehiteSs, Buildera, wd IfaiW^ 
ing Owner#. Second Edition Re- 
vised. Crown Svo. GoA, prkedx. 

JENKINS (Rev. R. C.>, M.A. 
The Privilege of PWet and 
the Gaims of Ae Roam C^ittrch 
cem^ronted with Ae Scyiptu^rtai ™ 
Councils, and the Testomopy.cJ 
Poptt themselves. Fcapi Sw. C|OA, 
pri^3:r.6sf.o 

JBNNlHOS'fMta. YdiqEliia). 

8vo.' Clotn, price yr. 6a. 







Pn^gaandSweeta. 8^ 

H undifed aad Si*ity.«;i 
«eo»ipl 5 S approved hy Experieste 
Crown 8 to^ price,^. 6<^ ; ^ , 

1?ratlji^,,fts, 
j ga^ Ml»- to tomedfe* con- 
CraMSvOr CSotlti <^rice 

MWiTINfiBtCMni.). 

. *JSj"^lakes TTie Story of 
8y^Io!h?““' C""". 

xitR (David)., 

- The Boy Slave in Bokhara. 

^lUeafCentnJABi. Withllfas. 
ttatoiw. prown 8vo. Qoth, price ». 

J[** 5 ,.WUd IJorseman of 

csrprici”"!^'*^' ^ 

KlW{AUce). . ■ , ' 

n«h' Crown 

8V6. Cloth, pnce 7 s. 6rf. 

KINO (Mr». Hamilton), ^ 

Plsciplf^Se A 'New 

ClMK. Wee 

AaiAodaonte, and 

Editioit 

8vo. aoth,pnoev«. 







Haiahaa^ ConfiwAt^*. br. 


Wceji. , • - .- „^, 

r vopferenc^ delfa^Srefl 

■ 

I'»^«fX^afi (.tie); X’ * 
.? Tliree Cauftw., Rap. 
oyo. JCIoth, pnce 

aiT^eSArsS;??^' 

LAURIB (J. 8.). . ., 

Educational, Courae of 

tocular School Books for XndJa: 

Ss Hihduatoni 

The Secoivd HinduBtahi 
Kwaer. Stiff linen wrapper,price6<f. 
The Oriental 


w««vaaAAA • IJC, 

Reader. Book 1., price ^7'!! 

Geography Of iTOlia; with 

Maps .and Historical Amndhr. 
^g?g ‘he%itish 

Fcap.‘8vo. . 

t^lotn, pnce is, 6d, 

BAYMANN (Capt.). t 
The ^'rontal ' Attack of 
{J\““5y- Tninslated by Coteid 
.NewiWe. C^wn bvo. 
CJoih, pnce 2 s, 6d, ^ 

,lfe D. S. ; / ^ ‘ ' 

^ •^'***^8 ^fBtn " phihi . ao<^ 

• IlIoMnt^ ’nds'psae.' ' 
8to. Cloth, price 7 x, 
LRANbRR (Richardh 

F^tastic Btoriet. , ' 

WwnBiid. ,Oe4 








r . . 

:W<))tid|* .<>r, 

_ I^.'(Holli««}. "' , '.■• '• * ■' 

iSer '^itle 'Bonottr;.; A 

Book fi»Gir|f>.N««r, £<&&». Wth 
ji,.F^x)ikiM*^ ' Cn>wn Sv«. ' doth, 
iNfNV/ ' 

i^Tiqiii ■' 

^ Eirot ' 

v^Tour witBi M. G^xjme and <^ers. 
With^^a Ilk§trations. A New and 
C&e^JEdition. CrownrSvp, Cloth, 
jrfioe.y.W. • ' 

A RUt with Three Tajes., 

With, Foitf lUustradons by Catherine 
tl*. Ff^r- Cioth, price 5r, 

LI8TADO (J. T,). ' 

Ci^r Service. A Novel, 
avol^. CrbwvSvo. Qoth. 

LOCkiER (F.). 

Xrop4on Lyrics. A New and 
Revised Edition, with Additions and 
ajroqrtraitof the Author. Crown i^vo. 
Ooth, etsgant, price 7#. 

L€kim£L (Of. £.). 

The Nature of Light : With 
a Qener^ Account of Physical Optics. 
Second Edition. With x^Jllustra^ 
"tioiis 9iid a Table of Spectrawin 
Chhomo-Uthograi^y. Crown Svo. 
Cloth, price jr. 

Vplntne ‘ 3 ^in. of The Intenia- 
tional.Scienlific Series. 

"XORtMER’CPoter), D.D. 

Kixwjwd die ChqKb 

Articles, 

price t3>.^ 

(kpcl^iirglie^ 

^ ami /Rektriee Mm 
A ih»ariah;\ 



dcncor By Bayl^Remard. 9 ydtu 
With.a FOrtagIt. ^QSt Svow^ Clolbi^ 
pnccaw. ^ 

LqW£R (M. A.}« la.A;, 

^ Wayside Notes In vSeandi- 
niavia. -Being Notes of Thrvd Sa 
the North of Europe. Crown Svo.- 
dothk price pr. v* ^ - 

LUCAS (Alice), i 
Translations ftoln tfae 
Works of German PoeU of the 
. xSth and xpth Centuries. Fcap^ 

^ 6vo. Clothi price ssi 

LYONS (R. T.X Surg.^ilai. 9 en<^ 
gal Anny. 

A Treatise on Relapsing 

Fever. PostSvo. Cloth, price TSkAA 

MACAULAY Ut)> M.A., IS, 0 .^ 
Edin. 

The Truth about Iceland : 

Tours of Observation m .1879 and 
1875. With Remarks on Irish Pabliir 
Questions. Being a Second Edidori 
M ** Ireland in 1^2,” with *a*Klw 
and Supplementary Preface. Crawa 
8vo. Cloth, price 3^. 6rf. 

MAC CLINTOCK (L.). 

Sir Spangle and the Dingjr 
Hen. Illustrated. S 4 aiuv ooTO 
8vo.^ price v.Sd, 

MAC d6naLX> (Q.). 

Mfd^olm. With Portndt of 

the Author engraved on Steel* CkiQwn 
8vo. JPrice^dr. ' • 

St.Oed^(i:andBt.,Mk^a^ v 

3.^^. 'Cwm$v0.. Cl^ ' * 

1 i 1 ACI;ACKIAM(A N.CAV.A 1 

W^atn iCttgustM.' 

,jhkfiy as exhilMd^^aWiGeaw 

price iV- 




‘i>W8y^ ^tjb, 

^)i,/,Sdiio<iI. vi^th , 

lIlhsuiiUOTKi. 

Sef^nd CtoitoSVoC 

pncesi*^ \ , 

MAIR (R. S.), M.b., F.R.C.S.E. 
The Medicul Guide for 



Anglo-Iodianti' 

Mm of Advice to” ESi’opei^. in 
Ppwefvfttion 
Re^lMfSldf Heiath. With a 
5wrtem^t<>n the Management of 
vhudren in India. QrowhBvo. Ihnp 
cloth, price 3 #. 6fi, j 

**ii*^??*”^ (***• Eminence Car- 
flinaO. 

Essays bn Religion and 
JUteratnre. By Kjion« Writers. 
Third Sfeihes. Demy 8vo. Cloth, 
price lof* td. 

The independence of the 

Sec, wth an ‘Appendix con- 
wning the .Papal Allocation and a 
tporiaripn^ Crow 8vo. Clloth, price 

Bf ARBY (E. J.). 

^imel Mechanics. A 

Treatise on Terrestrial arid Aerial 
1 Locomotion. With \%j Ilhibrauons. 
mond Edition. CtewhSvo. Cloth, 
pnee ss. 

' Volume XL of The International 
l^entifip Smies, 

MAR^tEWITCH (B.). 

The f^eglected Q)^estibn. 

Tynslat^ from the Rasriiii, by the 
Princess Qurousoflf, and dedicated by 


ciOTia,toe Duchess of Edmbuigh. 
^a^ls. ,C|^8Vo. .Cloth, price X41. 

J^^I^OTT (Mai. W w.>.), 
MAnMAtL (H;).^ ’ ^ ^ : 

pnee loa. oa, . u 


y^^V^a!^Y.l(ptr^x 

l^/*®***. Step^EMik^ 

-■ Bvo, JSldtht pact /, , 

VoWeVIlI. ofThelattwiitwd 
ScMn nfic Sole. . i _ 

MA\JSttHAN-(W. c!x ' ‘ 

'.The AJperof Artbiijior. 

Egypt, SMi. Ai*. 
bi*,.nd<^-HolyI^, ^^ Map. 
Swond Sibbon. DemySvo. Cl^ 
price y. ., , , 

MAURICE. (C. B,). ' 

’ or EagHeh Pofittl^ 

Leadefa. No. x.— '■S'^apiutti Li^o- 
JpN. Cr^Svo. Cloth, price 
No. a.-rXYLER, Ball, Ojj)- 
CASTLB. Crown 8vo. OoS, price 

Maehini (Joseph). , 

A Memoir. By E, A V. IVo 
Photographic - Portraits. Second 
Edition. Crown 8vo. Doth, price 

I S*' . • r 

|.'MEDLEV(Lieut..eel.].0.^,R.B. 
An Autumn Tortt.fa' the ' 
United Stmea and^^Caai.. 

Crown 8vo. Doth^ 'price 51. 

MENZIEB (SuAerlasd). 

Mmojrs of Distiagpishpd 
Wpmen. .vols. P<mV Cloth, 

txice xor. 6<f. ’ ^ , J 4 • 


M|C»^ETHWAITB .q. .^T.), 
' ?-•**•** Chutohost 

Tabted of axchabre'for the 

■Convers* *• - - 

Jndian^^ 


C. J^ak C^*s ^uilicaHons. 19 




& Rnnetl, 

‘A*<5w»l|*»«a»^'©iow» ?vo. 
Cloth limp, price 7s* 6d.' 

U]^A^TiBt: beoi^e), F.R.d. 
^j£6jit€l^po^ty BVdlutidn : 
^ on some' raoent Social 

Chaileep. Post dvo. Qbth, price 

UqCKhER (B.). 

A Graniniar ofthd^Sfl^lod*- 
: chee baafuage, as it is sj-* — -- 
JIaldan (Ancient CedxosT 
Pei9ia^A|«^ and Roman^.^ 

Tcap. 8y<K Cloth* price sf. > 

MOORE (Rev. D.), M.A.‘ 
Christ and Church. 
By the Author of llie Age and the 
<5«^, &c. . Crovm 8vo. Cloth, 
price ar. 6 d^ 


hiOORB (Rev. T.). 
Sennonettes: on Synphy- 
mous* Texts, taken from the Bible 
and Book, m Chnmion Prayer, for 
the Stu^, Fmnily Reading, and 
Mvate devotion. Small crown 8vo. 
(^oth, price 4^ 6 (i, 

UOKB'kL (J, R.). 

, Badld Simplified . in Me« 

. . thod and X/angaaM. Beizm a 
Manual of O^metry. compiled m>m ' 
' the most inijportant Frencn Wdrks, 
apmved by the Universi^ of Paris 
and the Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, price er. &f. 

I^IORieB (Rev. F. D.;, M.A. 
The Olympian and Pythian 

Odea of Pindar. A New TVansla- 
>tion m EngMi'Verse, Crown 8 vd. 
Cloth, price 7s, 6d. 


P«net«. A Jtfovel 

amb. ' CMmSvo. Qotft. 


, T)irottlcsthw*it'e.' A'Kovel. 

' 3vab..^,-Ooi*ilt^^ Qgi^ ■ ’ 


Book ot-'Zt 




^ AlfiKthaiiiaieiraastUaa^^ Cibwn 
8vo. Clotfaj price' 5f« : ^ ' 


i;MOStYN(9ydnay>.i 
' V pifplexi^:, A Novell . filiAs. 

ChoaiuJvo. Cloth. ’ 
hfUSORAVB (Anthony), v 
Studies, in Political Bpo- 
homy.^ Crb^Svo. Cteai^ce6x. 

My^Sister Rosalind, i " 

ANoi^. Bythe Author of '*>Chris* 
dana North* ’ and ** Under , the 
Lime^.” a Goth. 

(J. T.). 

Slavonic Fairy Tales* 
Russian, Servian, Polish, and 
Bohemian Sources.' Wim Fropr ulus- 
Cradons. Crown 8vo. Cloth, prii^Sr. 

NBWMAN (J. H.), D^. 

. Characteristics from the 
Writingni of. Being Selections 
from his various Worker Arranged 
with the Audio''* personal wproval. ^ 
Third Edition* With Portrait. 
Crown 13 vo. Cloth, price 6r. 

%* A Portrait of the Rev. Dr. J. H. 
Newman, ^ounted for framing, can 
be had, price er* 6^. , 

NSW WRITER (A). 

Songs of Two Worlds. 

By a New Writer. Third Series. 
S^ond Edition. Fcap. 8vo. Goth, 
price 51, 

The Epic of Hades. Second 
' Edition. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, price 
71. 6^. 

NOBtB (J. A.)- 

The Pelican Papers. 

Reminiscences and Remains of a 
' DWeller in the Wilderness.' (^wn 
' 8v0. Goth, price 61. 

NORMAN PEOPDB (The). 

The Norman People* and 
their Existing Descendants in the 
British Dominions and the United 
'StaCtt of America.' Demy Stco. 
Cloth, price azr. ^ '« 

kc^RIS (Rw 9 AtfTeiQ. 

The Inner and Outer Life 

Poema 

Npctittm AVlie) ; 

Or, Rtiiiia** Policy id TmteV un- 
masked. Detny8vo. Sewed, prioeu. 




A Rrannt of ^ fiftt S-Volime*,.' 
<B.a C«tjr -Ctoth, 

•ijMiSBA a9i; ' i. 'V . ' , 

bw IneneasUis: MiKtanr Dtf. 

§euV> and one Way «f 
.^Demy 8vo. Stitched, ift 

F4a^<Cat*,«rP.>.> V > 
•Pm^plte^aQdilXtBl^iClicltper 
JBditioa. .Crown 8vo. Prke^i. 

PANStfBANQ BARI; 

.jOr/ -M^mpirs of, a ,Htndoo. 


PARKER Jpttoph), DeDa 
The Paraclet^ : An 
^ P^rtalHy and Ministry of 
tiie Holy GJi66t; witk soiOie retrace 
^ CTiitenttliscusshms. ^ond Edi- 
tion, Demy 8vo. Cloth, pri^ la^. 

PARR (Harriet).. 

Bchoea of a Famoua Year. 

Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 8f. 6dk 

PAUL (C. Kegan). 

Goethe’s Faust. .. A New 
^T^en^on in Rime, Crown Svo: 
Cloth, pncc fir, • 

William' Godwin; , His 
Sr- 5“J?* Contenjporan^. , 
Md Facsipiucs of the 
H^wrlting of Godwin and his 

. aS^price"tt. Squiwpottsva 

Genitt* orGMsttanity 


AVisit te^aeiiniii • 




airi I^dcel^nf RSfidiifiiAj, 
oCte- Schemes of ^t^cnthrir Edu- 
cation. Crown 8va Cbtih, price 

4^» 6« . j 

• PEACotKE <Oeoi«iiKM). 

;R|^ front' the SoathSm 

Croa.; Poem.. Crown Siie. With 

piricc loi.fidT.' ' , , ^ 

PEtEETAN (E,). 

The Desert Pasll^^ Jean 

, Jarousseau. Translated from the 

Lf*oste. WithaFromispieeei Kew 
Fcap. Svo, C^J,^rice 

PKNNELL-fH, Chplmoi^eisy)*. 
Pegasus Resaddled. By 

PENRICE (MaJ. J.), bX 

A bicHonaiy a^ •GJo^ty 
«[*5* 'Wd^tgMoiWOimi 

4a^dHWj^)ceri|i,d5itphii«tions 

oftheText. d*ii>.QV>«h, price «s». 




C Publuations. 


ay 



^ pnije '.£ ■ ^ , 



PPB1»F»» (Emil^. «,' 
qun Ahtri^: Hts" SilSffiM 

KtidSMC. A Pacnw OroWHtvOv 

pfkt6s, A 

PIQGOT (J.)i F.Q.A;. F.R.O.9. 
Persia— Ancient and Bio- 
dem. Qolh, price iwSrfi^ 

PQUSHXlIf 

Russian Romance* 
Translated firwn the Tales of Bclkm,r 
cfe By Mn* J. Bnchan Telto (#^ 
ItfotDra\^elD« Crofwn Svo* Qodi, 

, pried 7#. 

POWBR (H.). 

Our Invalids : Haw shall 
WA Bmplpy and Amuae Them ? 
Fcaprs^, Qc ‘ * 


ZSoth, price sr. 6^. 


POWl4tB7T. (Lieut. N> IhA* 
•Bastern Leg^ends and 
Stories in EnislIikVereot^ Oowii 
Svov a<aWpnce5«. 

PRB8BYTBR* 

.Unfoldin» ' of Christian 

Doct^ ^ 

tory Clauses of the O^eed cosuSoiuv 
Athanasiao is- nns eny t u r a i. 
SaiellcrowttStes Cldd^ jrit* 

- Cs(w«cp^y-aBA^ 

CteintSvibb €}oth».prisa#^;' 


^^OCT<kR (Richud .A^, B,A; 


A ^^rifis, of Essays contrast dor 
jhtl^iiheae h space and rime eitb 
^the<In£bittst arouM us. To whkii 
aie. added Essays oa ‘‘Asbxdogy.** . 
aadVT^ImlkhhSabbatiu*' Seco^ 
Bdhioft.^ Crown Bvd. Clotl^ price 
.dr. 

The Expanse of Heaven* 

A Series of Essays on the Wonders 
of the Firmament. With a Fronris* 
piece. Second Eoirion. Crown 8voC 
Clofh» price 6 s. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLBOY. 

The Volunteer, the Militia^ 
man, and the Regular Soldier. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 5^ 

RANKING (B. ^.). 

' Streams ^ from Hidden 
Sources. CrcAmSva Cloth, price 
61. 

RBANEY (Mrs. O. S.). 

Waking and Working; or, 
from Girlhood to Womanhood. 
With a Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 
Qoth, price 51. 

Sunbeam Willie, and other 
Stories. Three Illustrations. Royal 
x6mo. Cloth, price zx. 6</. 

Reginald Bramble. 

ACynic of the Nineteenth Century. 
An Autobiography. Crown 8vo. 
Cloth, price xox. 6 a, 

RHOADSS (Jiunes). 

Timoieon. A Dramatic Poem* 

“ Fcap. 8m Cloth, price 5 #‘ 

RIBOT (Prof. Th,). 
j Contemporary English 
choloays» Second Edition. ^ A Ra^ 
vSZtM Corrected Tranriation hma> 
thelatest French Edition. Laqps 
• portSvo. CfotlMPnccpfc 

Heredity: A , 

Study on its Phtuoiowiaji w ~ - 

jii^c%s:xr 




ISusCrfttido^ drgiwq by tM 
* 2^9^ udd A Map. E^ted h^pt. 
Brown. 4^wti nioe 


RgSBATabH (The Late Rd^. 
W.), M.A., of Brighton. 

Nofes oti G Media.' Crown 

Sfc).; price 5/. ,' JO ’ - 

I ' V 

J^fw iM CJua^ Editi0ui^ 

TI» I^te Rev. ' t. W. 
Robertson, M/A.vXife and Let- 
tara of.- Edited by the Rev. Ston* 
tcvd BroCke, M!A<, Chaplet in Or- 
dmi^ to the Quesp. 

L t. vbls., uniform with the Ser- 
mons. With Steel Portrait. Clown 
8vo. Cloth, price ysSdii, 

ll. Library Edition, in Demy 8vo., 
with Two Steel Portraits. Olodi, 
price t2S. 

1X1. A Popular Edition, in.i vol. 
CrOWQ 8vo( Cloth, price 6f. 

Sehnons. Four Series. Small 

crown Svo. Cloth, price 3^ each. 

Expository Lectures on 
St. PauPs Epistles to the Co- 
rinthians. A New Edition. dr^aU 
crown Svo. Clothjsprice jr. 

Lectures and Addresses, 

with other Hterary remains. A New 
Editioa Crown 8vo. Clodi, price 5r. 

An Analysis of Mr.'Tenny- 
sbn*s **Itt Memorlam.’* (Dedi- 
cated by Permission’ to the Poet- 
Laurt^te.) Fcap.8vo. Cloth, prices#. 

fpht Education of the 
Human Race., Tnihslsted from 
the German of Gotthold Ephraim 
L^ng. Fcap. 8vp. CloArpitee 

/ Tkt oAtSw alii^ had 

ha(f*fm^oeco. v. 

^teRv^. W. 


IftpSS 

doth/ Price 

''tS» ^ ' ’■■ V. ‘ . * 

RUdsilrL R.). 

Ij^gaa-Hwalet,/ Secdiid 

ROSSBLL (Mfiot-Ftimi 8.J; 
Russian Wars widi Turkey. 
With Two. Mifa. C^owiv 8vo.,Dtiw 
•6»; 1 ■ 

RUSSBIi£’(W. C.). 

Medioirs of Mrd.' t^setitia 
Boothby. Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 
7#. 6d, . ^ 

SADLER (S. W.), R.N. 

The African Cruiser^" ' A 
Midshicman's Adventures on the 
West Coast. With Three -Hi^tth- 
tions. Second Edition. Crown Svo. 
Cloth, price *3#. 6d. 

SAMAROW (Q.). 

For Sceptre and Crown. A 

Romance of the Present, Time. 
Translated by Fan^ Worraald. a 
voU. ’Crown Svo. Cloth, price isr. 

SAUNDERS (Katherine).. 

Tiro High MUls. A Novelr 

3 vols. Crqwn 8va Cloth. ^ 

Gideon’s Rock, and other 

Stories. Crov(ri8vo. Cloth, price 6#. 

Joan Morryweather, and other 
Stories. Crown Svo. Cloth, price 6#. 
Margai'et and Elizabeth. 
A Story of the Sea. Cm^a Sva 
^ Cloth, pnce 6x. 

dAUHDERS (John), 
larael Mort, . Overman 
a Story of the Mine. Crown Svo* 
Price Of. 


Hirell. With Frontispiece. 
Crown.8va Goth, price 3f. «/• 
Cheap Edition, mth Frondt- 
piece, price ax. 

Abel Drake’s Wife. With 
Frontispiece CiOM^ Svo., 

^^(^-aktiMi. Wth Itewfab' 



C. Kepn,PaiA'^.Cl^!$ Pvhlieatums. . 23 


Tlie'. OpeiAtil!^*#.'';^''' 

mut'A: '■■ ‘ 

"/OM IfeP*' 

Bvo. Qoth,jp^9*.; ,j:. - 

•tfvi Olitftatiianr ' <?f 
V^rst Anny .wi^r. 
StdtnmtU. TMo^lktedby. 

K. O. Bollitt. I>««^ 81^ 


ier<m 


SCHERPP .(»«}• w. von). ' ^ 
New In* 
■part* I. and 11. 
tha Oetmad ty 
Graham. PWmy 

7S. 6d. 

SCHMIDT (Prof; Oacar). , 

The Doctrine' of Descent 
end Darwinism. With *6 Illosi 
tirations. Third £ditioii. Crown 
8vo, Cloth, jprice <£. 

Volume Xfl. of The International 
Scientific Series. 


Studies iu t 

fantry Tacdcf.' 
'Tnindated «n» 
Cdonel lumley 
8vo. Cloth, price 


SCHUTZENBEROER(Prpf.F.). 
Fermentation. Witli Nu- 
merous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 

^^Volumc^xM. of The Intemafional 
Scientific Series. 


6COTT (Patrick). 

The Dream and the De^d, 

and other Poems. Fcap.evo. Cloth, 
price . 


SENIOR (N. W.)., 

, Alexis" Pe ToCquevi^ee 

'Oottesj^dence and Conversaddits 
#i&'Nassao W. Senior, fipom 1833 
to' 1859. Edited by M. C. M. Simp- 
son. avols. Large post 8vo. Cfotn, 
price an. 

Journals Kept in France 

and Italy. .From 1848 to^iBsa. 
With a Sketch of the Revolution of 
1848. Edited, by his Dau^ter, M. 
C. M. Simpson, a vols.> Post 8vo. 
Cloth, price 345.^ ^ 

Seiaen Autumn Leaves from 

Fairyland. Illustrated with Nine 
Etehings. Square crown Bvo. Cloth, 
price 3r. 6d,, 

SEYD (Ernest), F.S.S. 

The Fall in the Srice of 

Silver. Its Causes, its Con^uen* 
CCS, and their Possible Avoidant, 
with^ Special Reference to India. 
Deiny 8vo. ^wed, price tw. 6d, 

SHADWELL (M^J.-Gen.), C.B. 
Mountain Warfare. Illus- 
trated by the Campaign of 1799, in 
Switzerland.' Being a Translation 
of the Swiss Narrative compiled from 
the Works of the Archduke Charles, 
Jomini, and others. Also of Notes 
by General H. Dufour on the Carn- 
paign of the Valtelljne in 1635. With 
Appendix, Maps, and Intrixiuclory 
Remarks. DemySvo. Cloth, pnee 
x6j. 

SHELDON (Philip). 

Woman’s a Riddle; or, Baby 
Warmstrey. A Novel. 3Vols. Crown 
8vo. Cloth. 


SdOTT (W. Tv). 

Antiquities of an Essex 
Pariah ; qn Pages from the History 
of (heat Dunmow. Crown' 8vo. 
Cloth, price 51. Sewed, 4s* 

SCOTT (ttdbert H.}v 
Weather Charts and Storitt 
Warnings. Illustrated. Crown 
8vo,^ Cloth, price 3r. 6^. 

Fortune, and. 
With Four lUwtra- 
rob aoth,pricsy.6* 


Seeking his 

othsTmorisa 
tiqitf. CrbwiiSi 


SHELLEY (Lndy). 

Shelley Memorials from, 

Authentic Sources. WUkfaw 
first printed) an Essay on Chnst^- 
ity by Percy Bysshe Shelley. 
Porwut. >ird Edition. Ctorfh 
8vo. Cloth, price 3/. 

SHERMAN (qen. W. T.). 
Memoirs of General W. 
T. Sherman, ConM^dw of th. 







ISibxib Trftct^:er Stud{M 
n WMleraProUcra. lE^vM^n 
'Wl&ML atols. Crown Sv«, Oi^ 
foeej*. «Kh< .V - . 

S&trTB (Richnv^, MiL , ^ 

A -'DisQQunw. aa Tniili. 

Ba«8»(v Clo^ ~ ' 

SVB&LsV <wi3‘B.). : 

Boardtng<6ttt a&d Pauper 

fjchooln for .Qlrln, Crow* 8m 

pifce 3t. id. ' 

BKVHXBdwMd), M.D., LUB., 
V.BiS: 

Health and DiMase, as In* 

Awnced b^'the Bally, Seasonal, and 

odiar (^Itcal Chaiifl^ ill QuiBAn 
%item. AN^Emtion. FostSvo. 
price Vf. 

Poods, Profusely Illustrated, 
fbnritii Edition. Crown 8vo. Doth, 
fIMsr. . 

Volume III. of The Intmiational 
Srienrific-Series. 

Pfne^ical Dietar^r for 
Families Schools, and the La- 
bouring Clasaea. A New Edition. 
Foet^vo. Cloth, price y, daC 

Tubercular Consumption 
Ip its Early and Remediable 
Btail^ea. Second Edition. CrowQ 
8va Cloth, price 6i, 

SMITH (Hubert). 

Tent Life with Bnc^sh 


The'.SMiidjr 'Qf 'Sh^ntegir. 

y^'XBSton. ''Qxnm aro, 'CT^, 

pndesr." w . j 

. Volume V. cf The Internatkmal 
Scientific Series. 

bPlCBR'(6.). ' . 

Otho’s Death Waker. . A 
Dark Paap oT PCistory fBustraj^ 
Ih, ^V^cts. Fcaj^ 8vo>. C^, 
price 51. 

STEVENSON (Rev^ W* F.). , 

Hymns fbir the Church and 
Home. Selected and Edited hy the 
Rw* W. Fleming Stevenron. * 
The most complete H 3 nnn Book 
published. 

The Hymn Book consists of Three 
Partt For PubUc Wonship.- 
11. For Family and Private Wor^p. 
-III. For Children. 

Pitblis)ied in variomforms and 
prices, the- latter ran^nr from Zd 
to 6r. Lists and full particulars 
. will be furnished on application U 
the Pidflishers, 

STEWART(Prof. Balfour), M, A., 
LL.D,, F.R.S. 

Od the Conservation of 

Bauuy. .‘rhlid Edition. 

Fourteen Engravings. Crown 8vo. 
Goth, price y. 

Volume VI. of The Intknational 
Scientific Series. 

STONBHBWER (Affima). . ‘ 
MonAcellat A Lmud of 
North Wales. A Poem. rap. 8va 
Cloth, price y, 6d. ^ ' 

Mlduiel Lofib’s. Cross and 
dfhbr Storha* With Two lUusfira- 
tiOns. Roj^ i6mo. Chkh, price 
u, 6d, 




C. V PublUaHom. aj 


STRBTTONtSe** 

■The 

1^16^ 

C^jwy. TMi^*4econd Ttou^ 
sand Sue lUtMtrations; Rog^ 
aQth,pweU* ei^ 

Tbe Kinf^a Scxvanta. 

Thiity-^ghth Thousand. Eight 
llhistratiox^ Royul x 6 mo. Clot^ 
pr^ U. 6dlL 

iLost Gip. Fifty-scc5ond’11j<w-, 
sand. With ^ lUustradoos.. Royal 
i6mo. 1^. ^ 

*> Alsa a Aiv^fftefy Aound Sdt~> 
ihfh wiM Twelve 
prite 9S. 6d» 

David Lloyd’s Last Will. 
With Four ' Illustrations. Royal 
z6mo., price 2s. 6d» 

The ' Wonderful ' Life. 

Eleventh Thousand Fcap. 8vo. 
Cloth, price 2s. 6d, 


A Night and a Day. With 

Frontispiece. jEighth Thousand. 
Royal i6mo. Limp doth, pri<;e 6d, 

Friends till Death. With 

Illustrations and Frontispiece. 
Twentieth..Thousand. Royal i6mo. 
Cloth, price u. 6d.; limp cloth, 
price 6d. 

Two Christmas Stories. 

With Frontispiece. Fifteenth Thou- 
sand. Royal i6mo. Limp clodi, 
price 6d. 

Michel Lorio’s Cross, and 

Lrcft Alone. With Frontispiece. 
Twelfth Thousand. Royal i6nia 
Limp cloth, price 6d. 

Old Transoms. With 

Frontispiece. Twelfth Thousand 

W i6mo. Limp cloth, price 6d, 
Fal^ from “The King's 
Serv^ts.” 

The Worth of a Baby, and 

bow Apple-Tree Court wM 
Won. With Frontispiece, Fifteenth 
Tiieittand Royal tfiaut. Limp 
doth, price 6d, 

Hester Mprley’s Promise. 

S'Wda " QptWtt 8eo. Q ld h' 

Tlie Doctor’s Dttsttittia. 

3 vols. Crown 8m Cloth. 


8 TtJ 9 BS (Irteiiti-Colonel F. W.) 

Thelt^ikment of Ben^ 

&tilli|^^* The ‘History of its 
Orgswiustition, Rduipment, and^War 
Services. Comwedfrom Published 
. Worics OfllcudRecords, and various 
Private l^urcee. ^ . Widh numerous 
Maps and Illustrations. Two V6ls« 

^ PemySi^, Cloth, price 33r. 

8TUMM (Lieut. Hugo). German 
Military Attachd to the lUiivan Ex- 
pedition. 9 » 

Russia’s advance East- 
ward. Based on the Official Reports 
of. Translated by Capt. C. E. H. 
Vincent, with Map. Crown 8m 
Cloth, price 6r.< 

SULLY (Jamea), M. A. ' 

Sensation and Intuition. 

iWiy 8vo. Cloth, price zor. 6d^ 

Pessimism ; a Histoiy and 

a Criticism. 4 )emy Svo. Price 14^, 

Sunnyland Stories. 

By the Author of “Aunt MaiVsBran 
Pie.*^ Illustrated. Sm&Svo. OoCb, 
price 31. 6d, 

Sweet Silvery Sayings of 
Shakespeare. Crown Svo. doth 
gilt,' price js* 6d, 

8TME (David).^ 

Outlines of an Industrial 

Science. Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 
dr. 

Talks of the Zenana. 

By the Author of “ Pandurang 
Hari." 2 vols. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price azr. 

TAYLOR (Rev. J. W. A.), M.A, 
Poems. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 
prioe;fr. 

TAYLOR (Sir H.). 

Edwin the Fair and Isaac 
Comnenua. A New Edition. 
Fcap. 8vo. Cltth, price's^. M 

• A Sicilian* Summer rad 
other* Poems. A New S diri o n . 
Fcap. 8m Octh, price 

Philip Van Art^ldo. A 
Xbamatic Fhcm. A New*EdilitfL 
Fcap 8m doth, price sr. 


^6 




TAYLpR(Col. Mpii«oi«>);;C.S.l.. 
. M*R*I*A> < ‘ 

♦ , , w ■ «. U: ' ' 

IPhe ConiessionB ofa f hug. 

Crown 8vo. Qoth, pHcte 

Tiua: a tUe. 

Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 6j. 

tELFBR (J. Buchan); F.R.Q.6., 
Commanaer R.N. 

The Crimea and Trans- 

Caucasia. Wioh) numerous Illus- 
trations and Maps. 3 toIs, I^yal 
8vo. Medium 8vo. Cloth, price 361. 

TENNYSON (Alfred). 

Harold. A Drama. Crown 

8vo. Cloth, price 6c. 

a 

Queen Mary. A Drama. 
New Edition. Crown 8to. Cloth, 
price 6c. 

TENNYSON (Alfred). 

Cabinet Edition, xs Volumes. Each 
with Frontispiece. Fcap. 8vo. Cloth, 
price 2C. td: each. 

Cabinet Edition, xsvols. Com- 
plete in handsome Ornamental Case. 

TE^INYSON (Alfred). 

Authors Edition. Complete in 6 
Volumes. Post 8vo. Cloth gilt ; or 
half-morocco. Roxburgh style. 

VoL. I. Early Poems, and 
English IdylU. Price 6c. ; Rox- 
burgjS, 7c. td, 

VoL. II. Locksley Hall, 
Lucretius, and other Poems. 
Price 6c. ; Roxburgh, 7c. 6^. 

VoL, III. The Idylls of 
. the King {Com^Uie), Price ^ > 
Roxburgh,V 

VoL. IV. The Princess, 

and Maud. Price 6c.; Roxburgh, 

V. . ]E^och Ardent 

and tn Metaonim. Price 61;; 
Roxtogh, 7c. 6dl ^ 

Vol.'ll 


' — » 

failMYBOH (Alfred). ; 

The Unperial Library Xdi- 
tion. jn7^f DemySvo. Cloth, 
price IOC. each; m Roxbuighe 
^ binding, lat. 6d, ' ' 

Pocket , Volume Edition. 
» vols. In neat case. P;tto, ditto. 
Extra cloth gilt, in case. 

The Illustrated Edition. 1 

voL Large 8vo. Gilt extra, price 3*^. 

• Original Editions. 

Poems. Small 8v6. Cloth, 

price 6c* 

Maud, and other Foems.^ 

Small 8vo. Cloth, price ^r. 6 d, • 

The Princess. Small 8vo. 
Cloth, price 3c. 6d. 

Idylls of the King. Small 

8vo. Cloth, price 5c. 

Idylls of the King. Cpm- 

plete. Small 8vo. Cloth, price 6c. 

Thef Holy Grail, and other 

Poems. Small 8vo. Cloth, price 

4C. 6d, 

Gareth and Lynette. Small 

8vo. Cloth, price v*- 

Enoch Arden, & 6 . Small 

8vo. Cloth, price 3c. 6 d» 

Selections from the above 
Works. Super royal i6mo. Qoth, 
price 3C. 6(fv Cloth gilt extra, price 4c. 

Songs from the above 

•Works^ Super royal xdmo. Cloth 
extra, price 3c. 6dl ^ 

In Memoriam, Small 8vo. 

' Cloth, price 4c. 

Tetmydbn^rthh^ Young and 
for Recitation. Shtdallyarnuii^, 
Fcap. 8vo. Price xs*6d‘ 


( 7 . Regan Paid ^ C(f*s Publications. 27 


Tennyson’s MyUs , of. .the 

King, and other Pmous jl^UftnUed 
JuKa MarffaretOMAeroA. ^ V6la 
Half-DOimd morocco^ cldth 
side8> price^6 6r* each. 

THCAK AS (Moy). 

A Fi^ht for Life. With 

Fhmdspiece. Crown 8va Oo^ 
price 3^. 6 f 4 

Thomasina. 

A Novel, a vola ^ Crown 8vo. 
Cloth. 

THOMPSON (Alice C.). 

Preludes. A Volume of 
Poems. Illustrated by Elizabeth 
Thompson (Painter of “The" Roll 
Call 8vo. Cloth, price ^s. td. 

THOMPSON (Rev. A. S.). 

Home Words for Wan- 
derers. A Volume of Sermons. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 6s, y 

Thoughts in Verse. 

Small Crown 8vo. Cloth, price ir. 6d. 

THRING (Rev. Godfrey), B.A. 

H3rmns and Sacred Lyrics. 

Fcap. 8vo, Cloth, price ir. 

TODD (Herbert), M.A. 

Arvan or, The Story of the 
Sword. A Poem. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
price 7s. 6d, 

TODHUNTER (Dr. J.) 

Laurella; and other Poems. 

Crown 8vp. Cloth, price 6 s, 6d, 

TRAHERNE (Mrs. A.). • 

The Romantic Annals of 
a Naval Family. A New and 
Cheaper Edition. Crown 8va 
Qoth, price 5^. 

TRAVERS (Mar.). 

The ^Spinsters of Btotch*, 
ington. ANpvcl. avols. Down 
8vo. CIol^ 


TRAVERS 

Waiting for Tidings. By 

tbsAadlorof *^>me and Slaclc.^' 
3 vols. crown 8vo« 

TREMENHd^BRE (Lieut.-Ocn. 
C. W.) 

Missions in India: , the 
Si^tem of Education in Government 
and Mission Schools contrasted. 
Dpny jivo. Sewed, price af. 

•• 

TURNER (Rev. C. Tennyson). 

Sonnets^ Lyrics, and Trans- 
lations. Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 
4s,6d, 

TYNDALL(John),L.L.]S.,F.R.S. 

The Forms of Water in 
Clouds and Rivers, Ice and 
and Glaciera. With Twen^-iive 
Illustrations. #ixth Edition. Crown 
8vo. Cloth, price gs. 

Volume 1.^ of The International 
Scieptihc Series. 

UMBRA OXONIENSIS. 

Results of the expostu- 
lation of the Right Honourable 
W. E. Gladstone, in their 
Relation to the Unity of Roman 
Catholicism. Large fcap. 8vo. CloUi, 
price gs, 

UPTON (Richard D.), Capt. 

Newmarket and Arabia. 

An Examination of the Descent of 
Racers and Coursers. With Pedi- 
groes and Frontispiece. Post 8vo. 
Cloth, price gs. 


VAMBBRY (Prof. A.). 

Bokhara; Its History' and 
Conquest Second Edition. Demy 
8vo. Cloth, price i8s. 

VAN BENEDl^N (Mona.). 

* Animal Parasites pnd 

Messmates. Witf SzUlustsatidns. 
Second Editiion. Clol^ Ihice 51. 

Vf^ume XIX. of The InteniUioiial 
Sdeatific Series. 


aS A iMttf 




vams^a; 

E4i^oiii Crown SNi 

^^cEKt (c«pt: c. fi. : 


BUmentary ^ Militairy 
OMgraphyf ReeonaoltsinK, 

4 Ui 4 Sketchinif. Compiled lor 
Non •> Commissioned Officers and 
Soldiers of Arms. Souare 

crown Syo. Clou, pftce %i, ^ ^ 


VOQIDlr (Dt^ Hermann), . 

The Chemical effects of 
I#lght and Photoanrohy, in their 
aipplication to Art, Science, and 
Zadnstcw* '^he translation thoroughly 
fCViscd. With zoo lllustradons, in- 
^ttding some beautiful s]^imens of 
Fhotqgiraphy. Third Edition. Crown 
^ tl!0. Cloth, price 

Volume XV. of The International 
'Sdentihc Series. 


WNER (Lpdy Mary). 

Bvery day a Portion. 
Adapt^ from Bible and the 
l^yer Book, for the Private Devo- 
tions of those livings in Widowhood. 
Collected and edited by Lady Marv 
Vyner. Square crown 8vo. Cloth-, 
mc trai, price 5r. 


Waiting for Tidings. 

' By the Author of ** White and 
Black.” avols. Crown 8vo. Cloth. 

WAKtSNSLBBEN (Count H. 
von). 

The Operations of the 

South Army in Januaify and 
Februaiy, 1871. Compiled from 
the Official War Documents of the 
Hted-quarters of the Southern Army. 
Tnnslatcd by Colond C. , H. von 
WriighL Wiu Maps. D^y 8vo. 
O^pricadr. 

. 0 t> 

The Operations of the 

Fttat 4 Tmy under Oen. von 
^ WhMtenSM, Translated by Colonel ' 
Gn Ml voa Wright. Uniform with 
theabove. DemySvo. QoUmirice 


WAY (AO, A, 

HtmteXlOer- 

Vetre. Fcap. 

8vd: Clbd^ price sr. 

WEDM6R£(P.)4 
Two Giftt. 2 : vols. Crown 
8vo. (doth.. 

What 'tis to Love. By the 
Author of ** Flora Adair,” '*The 
Value of Fostertown.” 3 vols. crown 
8vo.. 

WELLS (Capt. John C.), R.N. 

Spitzber^n — The Gate- 

wiw to the^olynia ; or, A Voj^e 
to Spitzh^rgen. With numerous Il- 
lustrations by Whymper and others, 
and Map. New and Cheaper Edi- 
tion. Demy 8vo. Cloth, pric^dr. 

WETMORE (W. S.). 
Commercial Telegraphic 
Code. Second Edition. Post 4to. 
Boards, price 42^. 

What ^ti« to Love. 

By the Author of Flora Adair.” 
“ The Value of Fostcrstown. ” 3 vols. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, 

I 

WHITAKER (Florence). 
Christy’s Inheritance. A 
London Story. Illustrated. Royal 
idmo. Qloth, price is, 6 d, 

WHITE (A. D.), LL.D. 
Warfare of Science. With 
Prefatory Note by Professor Tynda^. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 31. 6 ii, 

WHITE (Capt. P. B. P.). 

The Substantive Seniority 
Army L4|it— Majors and Cap- 
tains. 8vo. ' jSewed, price 2s, 6 d, 

WHITNEY (Prof. W. D.),of yale 
College, New Haven. 

The Life and Growth of 
Langttj^e. Second Edition. Crown 
' 8^ Uolh, price 51. (^o^yright 

MsUfuftt, ' ' 

Volume XVI. of Thelhternatio&al 
Scientific Series. 


29 


C. Kegan Paul 6 * Ca.'t PubUcatUms. 


WHITNEY (t?of. W. D^,arV«le 

Colkge* New . 

E^se&tiaU ot MnfgUh 
Qmmmiir £or the 0 «^ ScAMti* 
Grown Svo.^ Goth* pn» y. 4 |C 

WHi^TLE (J. U), A.M. 

Catholicism and the Vati- 
can* With a Narrative of the Old 
Catholic Congress at Munich. 
Second ^ditfon. Crown 8lro. Clothe 
pQoe4r* 

WICKHAM (Capt. B. H., R.A.) , 

Influence of Pirearma upon 
Tactics : Historical and Critical 
Investigations. By an Opficbk of 
S tJPERioR Rank (in the Gennan 
Army). Translated by Captain £« 
H. Wickham, R.A.' Dtmy 8vo. 
Cloth, price ys, 6^f. 
a 

WILBERFORCE (H, W.). 

The Church and the Em- 
pires. • Historical Perioda Pre- 
ceded by a Memoir of the Author 
by John Heniy Newman, D.D. of 
the Oratory, with Portrait, Post 
8vo. Cloth, price loj. 6 d, 

WILKINSQN (T, L.), 

Short Lectures on the Land 

Laws. Delivered before the Work- 
injg Men’s College. Crown 8vo. 
Limp Cloth, price as. 

WILLIAMS (A, Lukyn). 

Famines in. India; their 

Causes and Possible Preventi<Mi. 
The Essay for the Le Bas Prize, 1875. 
D6my 8vo. Cloth, price ss. 

WILLIAMS (Rowland), D.D. 

Life and Letters of, with Ex- 

trac£s*from hisNote-Booiu. Edited 
by Mrs. Rowland Willims. ' With 
a Photographic Portrait, a vols. 
Large post 8vo. Cloth, price 34^* 

Psalms, Litanfes, Coun- 
sels and Collects for Devout 
Persons. Edited by his Widow. 
New and Popular Edition. 'Crown 
8vo, Cloth, price 3f. 6 d, 


WIlL 18 (R.,M.D.) 

S^ivetQB and Calvin t 
Stady of an Important Epoch is 
Early Hittory of the Refnmiatiai 
8vo* Cloth, price , 

V^LOUOHBY (me Am. 

On the North Wind — 
Thistledown. AVolumeofFoimfL. 
Elegantly bound. Small orowa#M^ 
Cloth, pnee 7^. 6 d, 

WILEON <H. S&BtoX ' 

Studies and Romueet^ 

Crown 8va Goth, price 7#. ddl 

WILSON (Lieut-Coh C. T.)l 
James the Second and the 
Duke of Berwick. Btemy Svm. 
Goth, price 12s. td, 

WINTERBOTHAM (Rev. S.L 
M.A., B.8c^ 

Sermons and Expositions*. 

Crewn 8vo. Goth, price yt, 6 tl, 

WOINOVITS (Capt. I.). 
Austrian Cavalry Exercise*. 
Translated by Captain W. S. Cookr. 
Crown 8vo. Cloth, price 7a, 

WOOD (C. F.). 

A Yachting Cruise in ilhe- 
South Seas. With Six Photo-- 
graphic Illustrations. Demy Evou 
Cloth, price ys. 6 d, 

WRIGHT (Rev. David), mIa. 
Man and Animals : A 
mon. Crown 8vo. Stitched kb 
wrapper, price is. 

WRIGHT (Rev. David), MJi, 
Waiting for the Light, and 
other Sermons. Crown 8vo» Cletb». 

I price 6 s, 

WYLD(R. S.),,F.R.S.E. 

, The Physic j and the Philo-, 
sophy of the Senses ; or, The; 
Mental and the Physical in (Heir 
Mutual Relation, llhistrat^ by 
several Plates. Demf 8vo. Clotb^ 
• price i 6 s. • 




30 


C. Kegan J^ul 6* Co.^s Publication^ 


yONOB(C.D.)L ^ 

Histoiy the Bng^ah 
Revolution of i668. Crcfwn Svo* - 
. Qoth, price i5f* ^ 

YOttXB (Stepliefi). ^ 

Clevedtn. ANoveL avoh. 

Crown 8va Cloth. 

YOUMANS (Elisa A.). ^ 

An Essay oa^tfae Cnlture 
df the Obaervine PowersQ of 
Children, especially Ih conneraon 
with the Study of Botany. Edited, 
with Notes and a Sf^plement^ by 
to^h Payne, F.C.I% Author of 
Lectntes ^ the Science^at^ Art of 
Education,*^ &C. Crown 8vo. Cloth, 
prioe 91; V. 


YOUMANa (Blisa 

FlfSt Book of Botany. 
Det^^ to Cultivate Observing 
* Powtfs of Children. With 300 £n- 
mvin^ New 'and Enlaiged^di- 
Boo. v>owtt 8vo. Cloth, price 5/. 

' YC^UMANS^dwwrd L.), M.D. 
A Class Book of Chemistry, 

pn^ the Basil of the New System. 
With 300 Illustrations.. Crown 8y0. 
. Cloth, price sr. ^ 

ZiiXM BRN (H.% 

Stories in Precioas Stones. 

With Six Illustrations. Third Edi- 
tion." Q-own 8vo. Cfhth, price 51. 




'THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 


A Monthly Review^ edited by James Knowles, price 2 s, 6d, 


The FIRST VOLUME of THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, 
price 14J., contains contributions by the following writers ; 


Mr. Tennyson. 

Rt» Hon. W. £. Gladstone. M.P. 
Lord Stratford de Redcliffc. 
Cardinal Manning. 
TheDukeofAigyll.* 

Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. 
Professor Huxley. 

Lord Selbome. 

The Dean of St. Paul’s. 

Sir James Fiiqames Stephen, 

Mr. Matthew Arnold. 

Mr. J, A. Froude. 

Sir John Lubbock, M.P. 

Mr. Grant Duff, M.P. 

Sir Thomas Watson. 

Rt Hon. Lyon Playfair, M.P. 
Canon Carter. 

Rey. 0r. Martineau. 

„ J. Baldwin Brown. 

„ J, Guipess Rogefs. 

V, ^•,^9;K.Mackonoi>hie. 


Mr. Frederick Harrison. 

Dr. Carpenter. 

Mr. W. Crookes. 

Rt. Hon. James Stansfeld, M.P. 
Lady Pollock. 

Mr. Frederick Myers. 

Professor Groom Robertson. 

„ Clifford. 

Mr, Arthur Arnold. 


„ James Speddihg. 

„ W. R. S. Ralston, 
E.D.J.WUson. 

„ C. A. Fyffe. 

„ Edward Dicey. 

„ Thomas Brassey, M.P. 
„ John Fowler. 

„ H^nry Irving, 

. Edgar Bownng. . 

Sir Julius Vogel. 

Mr. R. H. Hutton.' . 

0 Dr. Ward. ' ' 



ANNOUNCEMENTS. 


THE HISTORY OP THE EVOLUTION OP MAN. 

By Professor Habckbl, Author of** Th»History of Creation.'* Tnuislatfd 
by Professor Van Rhyn. a vob., profusely illustrated. ^ 

LECTURES ON THE LAWS OF HEALTH. By Pro- 

fessor C0RF1ELD> M.D. 

INTERNATIONAL LAW, OR RULES IIeOU. 
LATINO THE INTERCOURSB*OF STATES IN PEACE 
AND WAR. By H. W. Hallbck, A.M., Author of “BleMuntsrf 
Military Art and lienee,*' ** Minina of Spj» and Mexico," 

Edited, with copious Notes and Additions, by Sir Shbjiston Baker, 
Barrister-at-Law. a vols. Demy 8vo. 

TRAVELS IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE IN 

ALGERIA AND TUNIS. Illustrated by Facsimiles of his Original 
Drawings. By Lieut.-Col. R. L. Playfair, H. B. M.’s Consul-General in 
Algeria. 

WALKS IN FLORENCE. By Susan and Joanna Horner. 

A new and thoroughly revised edition in a voh. Crown 8vo. With illus- 
trations. 

SERMONS. Third Series. By the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, 

M.A., Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen, and Minister at 
Bedford Chapel, Bloomsbury. Crown 8vo. Cloth. 

ALL SAINTS' DAY AND OTHER SERMONS. By 

‘he late Charles Kingsley. Edited by his wife. 

SERMONS. By the late George Dawson, M.A. .Selected and 
edited by his wife. Crown 8vo, 

SALVATOR MUNDI: Expositoiy Lectures by the Rev. 

Samuel Cox. Crown 8vo. 

NEW READINGS AND RENDERINGS •OF SHAKE-- 
SPEARE’S TRAGEDIES. By H. Halford Vaughan. Demy »vo. 
Cloth. 

lONE. A Poem, in four Parts. By the Author of “ShSdowi 

of Coming Events.'* Foolscap 8vo. Cloth, price 5F. 






QPTHE AQA. 
.'im telttwii^^ itetty by B. D. 

" 'S^lKf aV I 


poetical and 

*W J^NAT TAYIkOII, ^liij|«)I(. Otown 

tsTlTBRE OP JAMBS HINTON. Edited 


Sy^-^H®*®®*****^ Cbownbrok. 


TOTS ^ ‘A 'Scfitt 6f lA^iurci on tHo ^T iPBtnnff 
TSOi^tRTHOAV BOOIC. ^ Edited Iqr EKiiy 



Til|^< PBNIAN CONSPIRACY. In a 

|rl:.^i!i^' *' . v) 

being V Economical and Wholescime' 

i . ^ ' 

i^CTICAL" EXAMPLES. Hugo Helvig. Translated 

Lumlbv Graham. With Diagrams. VoL i. ! 

0OTIE8 OF THE GENERAL STAFF. By Schellen- 

]X>RF« Translated from the German Iby Lieut. Harr* Vol. i, 

CHETWYND. A Novel.' By Susan Morley, 

« Author of ‘ Aileen Feners,’* “ Throstlethwaite," &c. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. 

* Hardy, Author of 

Far from the Maddmg CrowdT’ New Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth, price dr. 


LONDON: 

C. KEGAN PAUL AND CO. 
(^uuess^_ to the fHt^lishing Department of 
Henry S. King and Co;), 
PATE^OSTER ■ SfXJARE.